Energy-resolved mass spectrometry: a comparison of quadrupole cell and cone-voltage collision-induced dissociation.

Collision-induced dissociation (CID) can be effected in the interface region between atmospheric pressure ionization sources and single quadrupole mass analyzers. By varying the electric field in these cone-voltage CID experiments energy-resolved mass spectra can be obtained leading to breakdown graphs exploring the energy evolution of the fragmentation pathways. The breakdown graphs obtained from these cone-voltage CID studies are very comparable to those obtained by varying the collision energy in the quadrupole collision cell of a BEqQ mass spectrometer. The comparison has been made for the protonated peptides H-Leu-Gly-Gly-OH, H-Gly-Leu-Gly-OH, H-Gly-Gly-Leu-OH and Leu-enkephalin