A mass spectrometric study of the dimethyl ester trimethylsilyl enol ether derivatives of some 3-oxodicarboxylic acids

The fragmentation pathways for the dimethyl ester trimethylsilyl enol ether derivatives of some 3-oxodicarboxylic acids have been found by using B/E and B²/E linked scans, collisional activated decomposition and isotope substitution techniques. The trimethylsilyloxy group strongly directs the decomposition processes, and induces a fragmentation pattern that intimately reflects the structure of the compounds.