Using aromatic polyamines with high proton affinity as "proton sponge" dopants for electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry

Proton sponges are polyamines with high proton affinity that enable gentle deprotonation of even mildly acidic compounds. In this study, the concept of proton sponges as signal enhancing dopants for electrospray ionisation is presented for the first time. 1,8-Bis(dimethylamino)naphthalene (DMAN) and 1,8-bis(tetramethylguanidino)naphthalene (TMGN) were chosen as dopants, using methanol and acetonitrile/methanol as solvents. Individual standard compounds, compound mixtures and a diesel fuel as a complex sample matrix were investigated. Both proton sponges enhanced signal intensities in electrospray ionisation negative mode, but TMGN decomposed rapidly in methanolic solution. Significantly higher signals were only achieved using the acetonitrile/methanol mixture. On average a more than 10-fold higher signal intensity was measured with 10^-3mol l^-1 DMAN concentration. A stronger signal increase of alcohol functionalities was observed compared to acid functionalities. All compound classes which were detected in the diesel fuel (CH- and CHO_x-class) received roughly 100-fold higher signal intensities when using DMAN as a dopant. Furthermore, the number of detected compounds as well as the double bond equivalent of the detected compounds increased. The compound class distribution shifted when adding DMAN and the formerly dominant CHO₂-, CHO₃-, and CHO₄- classes received similar relative intensities as formerly less accessible classes. The findings depict DMAN as a promising additive for electrospray ionisation negative analysis of at least mildly acidic compounds, even within complex sample material.

The first proton sponge-based amino acids: synthesis, acid–base properties and some reactivity

The first hybrid bases constructed from 1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphthalene and glycine or alanine residues were synthesised and structurally characterised and unusual channels of their reactivity revealed.

Ring lithiation of 1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphthalene: another side of the ‘proton sponge coin’

A set of X-ray, multinuclear NMR and DFT approaches was used to address a question of selectivity, relative stability and enhanced reactivity of ring lithiated 1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphthalenes.

Nanocluster isotope distributions measured by electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry (MS) is a widely used tool for the characterization of organometallic nanoclusters. By matching experimental mass spectra with calculated isotope distributions it is possible to determine the elemental composition of these analytes. In this work we conduct ESI-MS investigations on M(14)E(13)Cl(2)(tmeda)(6) nanoclusters, where M is a transition metal, E represents a chalcogen, and tmeda is N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-ethylenediamine. ESI mass spectra of these systems agree poorly with theoretical isotope distributions when data are acquired under standard conditions. This behavior is attributed to dead-time artifacts of the time-of-flight (TOF) analyzer used. It is well-known that excessively high TOF ion count rates lead to dead-time issues. Surprisingly, our data reveal that nanocluster spectra are affected by this problem even at moderate signal intensities that do not cause any problems for other types of analytes. This unexpected vulnerability is attributed to the extremely wide isotope distributions of the nanoclusters studied here. A good match between experimental and calculated nanocluster spectra is obtained only at ion count rates that are more than 1 order of magnitude below commonly used levels. Discrepancies between measured and theoretical isotope distributions have been observed in a number of previous ESI-MS nanocluster investigations. The dead-time issue identified here likely represents a contributing factor to the spectral distortions that were observed in those earlier studies. Using low-intensity ESI-MS conditions we demonstrate the feasibility of analyzing highly heterogeneous nanocluster samples that comprise subpopulations with a wide range of metal compositions.