Determination and Gas-phase Stability Evaluation of Organometallic
Complexes by Nanoelectrospray Ionization and Collision-induced
Dissociation Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Abstract
Rationale: The structures of organometallic complexes determine
their stable functioning in product performance. Electrospray
ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is used in studying metal
complexes, but it exhibits limitations in analyzing labile
organometallics. Therefore, identifying a method of detecting unstable
organometallics and evaluating their stabilities is necessary, providing
a theoretical basis for material selection and performance evaluation.
Methods: The standard complexes Zn(BTZ) 2,
Fe(acac) 3, and Sn(Oct) 2 were analyzed
using nanoelectrospray ionization-quadrupole orbitrap MS (nanoESI-MS)
and compared with ESI-MS. Alkylamine-Ag + complexes
were analyzed using nanoESI and collision-induced dissociation MS/MS
(CID-MS/MS). Breakdown plots of the ion relative abundances against
collision energies expressed in terms of the center-of-mass were
constructed according to the obtained product ion spectra. Quantum
chemical calculations based on density functional theory were performed
to calculate the binding energies between the alkylamines and Ag
+. Results: The molecular ions of the three
standard complexes were only detected using nanoESI-MS, which confirmed
the suitability of soft nanoESI for use in detecting unstable
organometallics. The gas-phase stabilities of the amine-Ag
+ complexes, as estimated using the breakdown plots
constructed by plotting the data obtained via nanoESI and CID-MS/MS,
were consistent with the established theories, previous studies, and
binding energies calculated using computational methods.
Conclusions: NanoESI-MS is suitable for detecting labile
organometallics and enables the structural analyses of unknown
organometallic additives. A novel approach based on nanoESI and
CID-MS/MS was developed to determine the gas-phase stabilities of
organometallics, enabling their quantification and comparison and
providing a technical basis for product improvement, which is essential
in developing industrial materials.