Studying Structural Details in Complex Samples: II. High Field Asymmetric Waveform Ion Mobility Spectrometry (FAIMS) Coupled to High Resolution Tandem Mass Spectrometry (MS/MS)

The elucidation of structural motifs in extremely complex mixtures is very difficult since the standard methods for structural elucidation are not capable to provide significant information on a single molecule. The best method for the analysis of complex mixtures is ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry, but the utilization of this method alone does not provide significant information about structural details. Here, a combination with a separation method is necessary. While chromatography is a well-established technique, it has some disadvantages in regard to the separation of complex mixtures, as often no separation of individual isomers is possible. Therefore, here the combination of an ion mobility separation with ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry is evaluated. As a sample matrix, crude oil is used because it is an excellent matrix to develop new analytical techniques on complex samples. Crude oil is the most complex natural sample known, but only little information is available on the structural identity or functionalities due to a high number of structural isomers or isobars. A lab-built APPI/APLI-FAIMS source was revised to optimize ion transmission and used to follow up on the ion mobility of crude oil constituents after photoionization. An MS/MS approach using collision-induced dissociation (CID) was used to elucidate structural motifs of the transmitted isomers.