Negative-Ion Chemical Ionization in Mass Spectrometry

Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)-based technologies are widely utilized for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of derivatives of organic analytes. Mass spectra are the identity cards of organic molecules. Understanding and interpreting mass spectra are of key importance in various fields of chemistry and related disciplines. The negative-ion chemical ionization (NICI) technique is now extensively used and has been developed almost two decades after electron ionization (EI) and there is a lack of introductory resource enabling the effective harnessing of this important research technique.

Negative-Ion Chemical Ionization in Mass Spectrometry: Basic Principles and Interpretation of Spectra deals in-depth with the interpretation of NICI mass spectra specifically. Reported NICI mass spectra of different classes of unlabelled and stable-isotope labelled organic analytes, the isotopologs, serve as examples for a detailed step-by-step interpretation and final structural elucidation of the analytes. The book provides deep insights into the basic mechanisms that occur in gas chromatography, which include H/D isotope effects, kinetic H/D effects, cis/trans effects, and isomerism, and mass spectrometry, namely chemical ionization by secondary electrons, reduction, oxidation, fragmentation and rearrangement reactions in the gas phase, collision-induced dissociation (CID). Nitrogen rules in GC-NICI-MS and GC-NICI-MS/MS are presented in examples and applied to NICI mass spectra. Solid knowledge of the mechanisms in GC-NICI-MS and GC-NICI-MS/MS are also shown to be key for a deeper understanding of gas-phase reactions and for successful quantitative analytical chemistry in the life sciences.

Negative-Ion Chemical Ionization in Mass Spectrometry is written for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and their tutors primarily in analytical chemistry and organic chemistry. The book is also addressed to researchers from surrounding life sciences disciplines such as medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and the environmental and climate sciences.