Collision Induced Dissociation of the retinal chromophore Schiff base from sub-eV to keV collision energies

• The gas-phase fragmentation of the protonated n-butylamine Schiff base of all-trans-retinal (NB-RPSB) was measured in low- and high-energy collisional activation modes. The protonated n-butyl β-ionone Schiff base (NB-BISB) peak at m/z = 248, known to be formed as a result of a complex gas-phase rearrangement reaction, has been reported to dominate in mass spectra of NB-RPSB after photo- and collisionally activated fragmentation processes. Earlier reported high-energy collision (50 keV) mass spectra have shown a broad distribution of the fragments with the peak at m/z = 248 present but not dominating. We observed the formation of a peak at m/z = 248 only in collisional activation of NB-RPSB parent ion below a few eV, which shows that the rearrangement process is extremely efficient and happens in a very narrow energy range. On the other hand, our high-energy collision induced dissociation experiments yielded fragmentation patterns, which are fully accounted for simple bond cleavages of the NB-RPSB molecular backbone. We do not observe any peak corresponding to the formation of NB-BISB in the 10 eV – 1 keV collision energy range. This leaves the question open why this fragment reappears in the mass spectra at much higher energies.

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NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

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fysik

Physics

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