title: Corona discharge in charge reduction electrospray mass spectrometry.
abstract: Corona discharge is applied to charge reduction electrospray mass spectrometry for the analysis of complex mixtures of biological molecules. Recent work has described a method of charge reduction (reducing the charge states of analyte ions generated by the electrospray process) employing the radioactive isotope 210Po to produce neutralizing species. A variation to this approach is presented, in which charge neutralization is mediated by ions produced in a corona discharge. Varying the corona discharge voltage controls the current and the degree of charge reduction, providing predominantly singly charged ions that are detected by a commercial electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometer. This technique provides charge reduction for the simplification of ESI spectra, without need for any radioactive material.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison 53706, USA.
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Ebeling
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Westphall
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scalf
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D003574:Cytochrome c Group / Q000737:chemistry; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization
chemical_list: D003574:Cytochrome c Group; D009841:Oligonucleotides