Observation of ion coalescence in Orbitrap Fourier transform mass spectrometry

Similar to other mass spectrometric technologies based on ion trapping in a spatially restricted area, the performance of Orbitrap Fourier transform mass spectrometry (FTMS) is affected by the interaction between the trapped ion clouds. One of the effects associated with Coulombic interaction inside the ion trap is the ion cloud coupling, known in ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) FTMS as coalescence, or a phase-locking phenomenon. Nevertheless, the direct observation of ion coalescence has not been reported for Orbitrap FTMS yet.

We have performed experiments on ion coalescence with a pair of isobaric peptides in the state-of-the-art hybrid linear ion trap high-field compact Orbitrap Elite FT mass spectrometer using both standard and advanced signal processing modes.

For the instrument configuration employed in this work we found that ion coalescence occurs when two singly charged peptides with the mass difference of 22 mDa and molecular weight of about 1060 Da have the total abundance of at least 7.5*10(4) charges.

We experimentally demonstrate the existence of the ion coalescence phenomenon in Orbitrap FTMS for peptides for a wide range of total trapped ion population. Using the applicable modeling of the phase-locking threshold we estimate the effect of ion coalescence on the performance of Orbitrap FTMS.