Water Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry of Aldehydes, Ketones, Esters, and Carboxylic Acids

Abstract

Chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CI) of aliphatic and aromatic carbonyl compounds using water as the reagent gas provides intense pseudomolecular ions and class-specific fragmentation patterns that can be used to identify aliphatic aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and esters. The length of ester acyl and alkyl groups can easily be determined on the basis of loss of alcohols from the protonated parent. Water CI provides for an approximately 200:1 selectivity of carbonyl species over alkanes. No reagent ions are detected above 55 amu, allowing species as small as acetone, propanal, acetic acid, and methyl formate to be identified. When deuterated water was used as the reagent, only the carboxylic acids and β-diketones showed significant H/D exchange. The use of water CI to identify carbonyl compounds in a wastewater from the supercritical water extraction of lignite coal, in lemon oil, and in whiskey volatiles is discussed.