Analysis of a drug in urine by JMS-S3000 "SpiralTOF™" and TOF-TOF option
MSTips No. 263
Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) uses small organic compounds called matrices as ionization promoters. MALDI is often used with a reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS), but it is generally considered difficult to measure low molecular weight organic compounds of 500 Da or less. The reason is that MALDI ionizes not only the target compound but also the matrix and other interferences. In the low-molecular-weight region, the peaks of the matrix and interferences and the peaks of the target compound are mixed, but it is difficult to separate them due to the insufficient mass resolution of reflectron TOFMS. In addition, in MALDI, signals derived from post-source decay (PSD) are also observed as background ions, making analysis even more difficult. The JMS-S3000 "SpiralTOF™", which has a JEOL patented spiral trajectory ion optical system, has a long flight distance of 17m and can achieve high mass resolution. In addition, since ions derived from the PSD can be eliminated by the sector electric field that constitutes the ion optical system, it is possible to acquire mass spectra with little background noise. These features enable accurate mass measurements of low-molecular-weight compounds [1]. Structural analysis using high-energy collision-induced dissociation with the TOF-TOF option is effective for low-molecular-weight compounds in practical samples to improve the accuracy of identifying target compounds. In this report, we analyzed methylephedrine*, a phenethylamine compound, in common cold medicines as an application to the field of forensic chemistry.