Fragmentation studies on tetronasin by accurate-mass electrospray tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

We report here the first full fragmentation study of tetronasin 1. Fragmentation was carried out by high-resolution ESI-CID-MS(n). The formulae of the fragment ions were determined by accurate mass measurements. It is demonstrated that the fragmentation routes observed derive essentially from a first loss of water via two different mechanisms. One minor route consists of a charge remote neutral loss and the second major route occurs via the formation of a carbocation. The fragments obtained from this carbocation were produced by subsequent complex neutral eliminations and the structures were inferred, in some cases, by carbocation stability.