Discrimination and quantitation of halobenzoic acid positional isomers upon Th(IV) coordination by mass spectrometry.

Abstract

A fast and reliable mass spectrometry-based method has been developed to discriminate the positional isomers of o-, m- and p-C6H4XCO2H (X = F, Cl and Br). This is based on the distinct fragmentation patterns of isomeric ThCl4(C6H4XCO2)- ions generated by electrospray ionization of the solutions with C6H4XCO2H isomers and ThCl4. Moreover, the composition of these positional isomers can be conveniently quantified without any pre-treatment according to the proportion of gas-phase fragmentation products.