Effect of Solvent Choice on Pyrolized Cellulose Analysis Using Coaxial EESI-MS

Undergraduates: Anne Worth, Dakota Swanson

Faculty Advisor: Gary Glish
Department: Chemistry

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Mass spectrometry using extractive electrospray ionization (EESI-MS) is a method for producing and measuring ions of different masses by intersecting an analyte-containing aerosol and an electrospray of the desired solvent in an applied electric field. Coaxial EESI is a variation of EESI developed in our lab that can be used to measure the complex components of pyrolyzed cellulose, tobacco and other compounds. Compounds in the aerosol are extracted based on solubility, thus the choice of solvent and added acid when performing EESI can greatly influence the mass spectrum obtained from an analysis. No systematic study of EESI solvents has yet been performed for aerosol analysis. This research aims to identify differences in the mass spectrum of pyrolyzed cellulose when different solvents are used for ionization, and identify the solvent mixture which gives the highest intensity and most diverse distribution of peaks. The solvents tested include different mixtures of water, methanol, acetonitrile, toluene, chloroform, and dichloromethane. The results show that many of these mixtures give similar spectra; however, more peaks in the higher mass range are observed with toluene, chloroform, and dichloromethane. To this point, the 50/50 water-methanol solvent mixture used for most EESI experiments gives the most reproducible, and significantly intense spectrum for the analysis of cellulose.