Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 9, 2026

MALDI-ToF MS Method for the Characterization of Synthetic Polymers with Varying Dispersity and End Groups
Published on: October 3, 2025
Chemical additives facilitate molecular weight characterization of underivatized dextran by high-resolution
Yujia Ying1,2, Jiangang Chen3, Shaoping Li1,2,4
1State Key Laboratory of Mechanism and Quality of Chinese Medicine, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China. spli@um.edu.mo.
Abstract:
Polysaccharides are essential resources for all organisms. Despite the increasing popularity and sophistication of biological macromolecule research, analytical approaches for polysaccharides are still urgently required due to their complex heterogeneity and diverse structures. One of the primary characteristics of polysaccharides is molecular weight, whereas precise mass results are still hard to obtain by current molecular weight characterization approaches. High resolution mass spectrometry (MS) with soft ionization techniques can provide accurate mass information for macromolecules, except for polysaccharides, due to the problem that most neutral polysaccharides have limited ionization efficiency. Focusing on the improvement of ionization, a practical method was proposed here in which chemical additives can facilitate the electrospray ionization (ESI) of neutral polysaccharides. Taking dextran as an example, effective ESI additives were examined and investigated with two distinct behaviors. Compared with an average molecular weight of 13 600 Da given by HPSEC-MALLS-RID, 16 866 Da was identified as the maximum mass by ESI-MS with formamide assistance. Large polysaccharide ions with a resolvable isotopic distribution were then analyzed by tandem MS directly to investigate the fragmentation features. Formamide was used as an effective ESI additive as well for other types of polysaccharides. The method proposed here provides an easy but reliable ionization way for further MS research on neutral polysaccharides.
More Related Videos
06:56Characterization of Synthetic Polymers via Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time of Flight MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry
Published on: June 10, 2018
12:11Simultaneous Affinity Enrichment of Two Post-Translational Modifications for Quantification and Site Localization
Published on: February 27, 2020
Related Concept Videos
Electrospray Ionization (ESI) Mass Spectrometry
ESI utilizes electrical energy to transfer ions from the liquid phase of the sample into the...
High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HRMS)
Mass Spectrometry: Overview
SDS-PAGE
A variation of gel electrophoresis, termed polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), is commonly used for separating proteins according to their molecular size by passing them through a polyacrylamide gel. Because of the varying charges associated with amino acid side chains, PAGE can be used to separate intact...
Peptide Identification Using Tandem Mass Spectrometry
This technique helps gather information regarding the protein from which the peptide was obtained and to study the peptides’ amino acid sequence. Identifying peptides from a complex mixture is an important component of the growing field of...
Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI)