title: Analysis of metal complex azo dyes by high-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and multistage mass spectrometry
abstract: Five metal complex azo compounds were analyzed using negative-ion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Mass spectra of all compounds yield intense peaks corresponding to [M - H](-) ions without any fragmentation, where M denotes the neutral compound with a proton as the counterion. Under collision induced dissociation (CID) conditions, structurally important fragment ions were studied using the ion trap analyzer with a multistage mass spectrometry (MS(n) facility. Synthesized compounds with (15)N atoms in the azo group facilitated the fragmentation pattern recognition. A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method using 5 mM ammonium acetate in 70% aqueous acetonitrile as mobile phase was developed making possible the separation of all complex compounds tested. The lower detection limits of the ESI-MS method are in the range 10-20 ng of each compound. The HPLC/ESI-MS method makes possible the monitoring of ligand exchange in aqueous solutions of metal complex azo dyes, and also investigation of the stabilities of the complexes in solution. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Palacky University Olomouc, T&rbreve;. Svobody 8, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic.
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lemr
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hol&cbreve;apek
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jandera
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ly&cbreve;ka