Mass spectroscopy and chromatography of the trichloromethyl radical adduct of phenyl tert-butyl nitrone.

Positive structural identification of the PBN-trichloromethyl spin adduct in vitro was accomplished with the use of high pressure liquid chromatography and/or gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Both thin layer and liquid chromatography were used to separate a complex mixture of compounds from rat liver extracts treated with CCl4 in vitro and in vivo. Deuterated PBN's (PBN-d9; tert-butyl deuteration, or PBN-d14; both phenyl and tert-butyl deuteration) were also used to aid in the mass spectral analysis of spin adducts from liver extracts of CCl4 exposed rat livers, since the tert-butyl group fragment ion. C4D9+ (m/z = 66) is always present for PBN and PBN spin adducts. In addition, the masses of the ion peaks increase by the amount of deuteration, i.e. an increase of 9 for PBN-d9 or PBN-d14 in comparison to normally synthesized PBN.