Abstract

Electrospray ionization has recently emerged as a powerful technique for producing intact ions in vacuo from large and complex species in solution. To an extent greater than has previously been possible with the more familiar "soft" ionization methods, this technique makes the power and elegance of mass spectrometric analysis applicable to the large and fragile polar molecules that play such vital roles in biological systems. The distinguishing features of electrospray spectra for large molecules are coherent sequences of peaks whose component ions are multiply charged, the ions of each peak differing by one charge from those of adjacent neighbors in the sequence. Spectra have been obtained for biopolymers including oligonucleotides and proteins, the latter having molecular weights up to 130,000, with as yet no evidence of an upper limit.

Keywords

BiomoleculeElectrospray ionizationChemistryIonizationMass spectrometryIonElectrosprayMoleculeMass spectrumAnalytical Chemistry (journal)Chemical physicsSpectral lineChromatographyPhysicsOrganic chemistry

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Publication Info

Year
1989
Type
review
Volume
246
Issue
4926
Pages
64-71
Citations
7455
Access
Closed

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Cite This

John B. Fenn, Matthias Mann, Chin Kai Meng et al. (1989). Electrospray Ionization for Mass Spectrometry of Large Biomolecules. Science , 246 (4926) , 64-71. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.2675315

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DOI
10.1126/science.2675315