The application of "double isolation" in Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance sustained off-resonance irradiation collisionally-induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry to remove labile isobaric impurities

This study reports the application of "double isolation" in sustained off-resonance irradiation collisionally-induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry (SORI-CID-MS/MS) to remove radio- frequency (RF) fragment ions of very close mass isobaric ions (0.02 m/z apart). Analyses were performed with a fraction of a biological extract isolated from a macroalgae containing the mycosporine-like amino acid asterina-330. Direct isolation of the precursor ion by narrowing the isolation window proved ineffective as it impinged upon the required ion thus substantially reducing its intensity. By increasing the correlated sweep time, ejection efficiency of the isolation was improved, but caused the unwanted side-effect of RF fragmentation of labile ions. Finally, by skipping the ion activation step and performing a second isolation (in the MS(3) module) the RF fragments from the first isolation were removed leaving a very pure isolation of the required precursor ion and allowed a very clean CID fragmentation. We demonstrated that the m/z 272.1351 ion is derived from the loss of NH(3) from m/z 289.1620 isobaric impurity and is not related to asterina-330. This application represents a powerful tool to remove unwanted ions in the MS/MS spectrum that result from fragmentation of isobaric ions.