Hydrogen and trimethylsilyl transfers during EI mass spectral fragmentation of hydroxycarboxylic and oxocarboxylic acid trimethylsilyl derivatives

This paper, describing electron ionization mass spectral fragmentation of some hydroxycarboxylic and oxocarboxylic acid trimethylsilyl derivatives, focuses on the formation of fragment ions resulting from the interactions between the two functionalities of these compounds. These interactions result in the formation of fragment ions at CH2=C(OTMS)2]+., CH2=CHC(OTMS)=OTMS]+, M-31]+, M-105]+, and M-RCHO]+. in the case of hydroxycarboxylic acid trimethylsilyl derivatives of formula RCHOTMS(CH2)nCOOTMS and at RC(OTMS)=CH2]+., RC(=OTMS)CH=CH2]+, and M-RC(=O)CH2]+ in the case of oxocarboxylic acid trimethylsilyl esters of formula RC(=O)(CH2)nCOOTMS. Some of these fragmentations appeared to be sufficiently specific to be used to characterize these compounds. Several fragmentation pathways involving trimethylsilyl and hydrogen transfers were proposed to explain the formation of these different fragment ions and were substantiated by deuterium labeling.