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Published on: December 9, 2022
Isothiocyanates as derivatization reagents for amines in liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization-tandem mass
1The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan.
Abstract:
The applicability of 3-pyridyl isothiocyanate, p-(dimethylamino)phenyl isothiocyanate and m-nitrophenyl isothiocyanate as the derivatization reagents for amines in high-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS) was examined. The generated derivatives of amines with these reagents were favorably separated on the reversed-phase column and detected by ESI-MS/MS. The C-N bond of the generated thiourea structure was efficiently cleaved by collision-induced dissociation and gave the single and intense product ion. Among the three reagents, 3-pyridyl isothiocyanate was the most suitable as the derivatization reagent with regard to the reactivity to amines and the detection sensitivity.
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