193-nm Photodissociation of ions from saturated and unsaturated aliphatic molecules

To determine the analytical utility of photodissociation as a general fragmentation technique for tandem mass spectrometry of organic ions, the ability to fragment those ions considered least likely to absorb photons efficiently was investigated. To this end, the ability to photodissociate ions of aliphatic compounds by using 193-nm photons has been studied. Three fragment ions, the C₄H ₉ ⁺ ion from n-hexane, the C₄H ₇ ⁺ ion from 2-hexene, and C₄H ₅ ⁺ from 2-hexyne, have been photodissociated. The fragmentation efficiencies for all three ions studied were between 25 and 45%. The photofragment ion spectrum for each precursor ion studied is made up of characteristic fragments. These spectra demonstrate the ability to photodissociate aliphatic ions that originate from both saturated and unsaturated molecules. This provides substantial hope that virtually all organic ions will be able to be photodissociated by using 193-nm photons.