Sterically hindered phenols in negative ion mobility spectrometry–mass spectrometry

Abstract

Negative corona discharge atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) was used to investigate phenols with varying numbers of tert-butyl groups using ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry (IMS-MS). The main characteristic ion observed for all the phenolic compounds was the deprotonated molecule [M-H](-). 2-tert-Butylphenol showed one main mobility peak in the mass-selected mobility spectrum of the [M-H](-) ion measured under nitrogen atmosphere. When air was used as a nebulizer gas an oxygen addition ion was seen in the mass spectrum and, interestingly, this new species [M-H+O](-) had a shorter drift time than the lighter [M-H](-) ion. Other phenolic compounds primarily produced two IMS peaks in the mass-selected mobility spectra measured using the [M-H](-) ion. It was also observed that two isomeric compounds, 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol and 2,6-di-tert-butylphenol, could be separated with IMS. In addition, mobilities of various characteristic ions of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene were measured, since this compound was previously used as a mobility standard. The possibility of using phenolic compounds as mobility standards is also discussed.