Simultaneous fragmentation of multiple ions using IMS drift time dependent collision energies

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Spectrometry
• Biophysics

Background:

• Ion mobility spectrometry coupled with mass spectrometry (IMS-MS) is a powerful tool for analyzing complex mixtures.
• Optimizing fragmentation conditions for diverse ions in IMS-MS remains a challenge.
• Collision-induced dissociation (CID) is commonly used for ion fragmentation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a novel ion collision energy ramping technique for simultaneous fragmentation of multiple ion species in IMS-MS.
• To determine optimal fragmentation conditions for ions with varying mass, charge state, and drift time.
• To improve fragmentation efficiency and consistency across a range of ions.

Main Methods:

• Utilized ion mobility spectrometry coupled with mass spectrometry (IMS-MS).
• Separated precursor ions based on mobility differences in the IMS drift cell.
• Induced fragmentation using collision-induced dissociation (CID) with a voltage ramping technique.
• Analyzed fragmentation patterns by increasing bias voltages from 0 to 50 V.

Main Results:

• Observed an approximately linear correlation between optimal fragmentation voltage and ion drift time.
• Employed a linear voltage gradient to adjust collision energy based on ion mobility.
• Achieved similar fragmentation efficiencies for different ions when using the voltage ramping technique.
• Demonstrated drastically varied fragmentation efficiencies when using a single fixed voltage.

Conclusions:

• The developed ion collision energy ramping technique effectively optimizes simultaneous fragmentation for diverse ions in IMS-MS.
• Linear ramping of fragmentation voltage with drift time ensures consistent fragmentation efficiency across various ion species.
• This technique offers a significant improvement over single voltage methods for complex mixture analysis.