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Updated: Dec 1, 2025

Determination of the Gas-phase Acidities of Oligopeptides
Published on: June 24, 2013
Direct Analysis of Ion-Induced Peptide Fragmentation in Secondary-Ion Mass Spectrometry
P Schneider1, F Verloh1,2, A Portz1
1Institut für Angewandte Physik and Zentrum für Materialforschung, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 16, D-35392 Giessen, Germany.
Abstract:
Primary-ion-induced fragmentation in organic molecules can strongly influence the results in secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) of organic and biomolecular samples. In order to characterize this ion-induced fragmentation, oligopeptide samples irradiated in SIMS experiments were investigated by means of desorption/ionization induced by neutral SO2 clusters (DINeC). The latter is a nondestructive desorption method for mass spectrometry of biomolecules, which gives direct access to the fragments induced in the sample. Comparison of TOF-SIMS and DINeC mass spectra revealed qualitative differences between the fragments, which remain in the sample and the fragments sputtered during ion bombardment. The fragmentation strength and its spatial distribution were found to be quantitatively different for Bi1+, Bi3+, and Ar1000+ primary ions, leading to different distributions of the degree of fragmentation in the samples as directly measured by means of DINeC depth profiles.
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