Mass spectrometry of dendrimers

Abstract

AbstractMass spectrometry (MS) has become an essential technique to characterize dendrimers as it proved efficient at tackling analytical challenges raised by their peculiar onion‐like structure. Owing to their chemical diversity, this review covers benefits of MS methods as a function of dendrimer classes, discussing advantages and limitations of ionization techniques, tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) strategies to determine the structure of defective species, as well as most recently demonstrated capabilities of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) in the field. Complementarily, the well‐defined structure of these macromolecules offers major advantages in the development of MS‐based method, as reported in a second section reviewing uses of dendrimers as MS and IMS calibration standards and as multifunctional charge inversion reagents in gas phase ion/ion reactions.