Acetonitrile adduct formation as a sensitive means for simple alcohol detection by LC-MS

Simple alcohols formed protonated acetonitrile adducts containing up to two acetonitrile molecules when analyzed by ESI or APCI in the presence of acetonitrile in the solvent. These acetonitrile adducts underwent dissociation to form a nitrilium ion, also referred to as the substitution ion. Diols and triols behaved differently. In ESI, they formed only one acetonitrile adduct containing one acetonitrile. The S ion was not observed in ESI and was only weakly observed from the dissociation of the (M + ACN + H)(+) ion. On the other hand, the S ion was abundantly formed from the diols in APCI. This formation of acetonitrile adducts and substitution ion from simple alcohols/diols offers an opportunity to detect simple alcohols/diols sensitively by LC-MS interfaced by ESI or APCI. The utility of this chemistry was demonstrated in a method developed for the quantification of cyclohexanol in rat plasma by monitoring the CID-induced fragmentation from the S ion to a fragment ion.