Collision induced fragmentations of multiply charged sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)-sulfosuccinate aggregates in gas phase: neutral loss versus charge separation

Abstract Stability and fragmentation patterns of multicharged aggregates of sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)-sulfosuccinate (NaAOT) in gas phase have been investigated by ion mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS). Positively doubly charged NaAOT aggregates show at low collision energy a preference for the loss of NaAOT molecules, whereas fragmentation through charge separation process is favored at higher collision energy. By increasing the charge state of the aggregates, the fragmentation through charge separation tends to predominate especially at low aggregation number and only charge separation fragmentation is observed for positively quadruply charged species.…