Patent ID: 7534622

Claim:
A method of mass spectrometry analysis based on electron transfer dissociation (ETD) of multiply charged organic and/or biomolecular cations, said method comprising the steps of introducing said multiply charged cations into an RF electric field ion containment device of a mass spectrometer; introducing polyaromatic hydrocarbon anions as gas-phase electron transfer reagents into said ion containment device; mixing the introduced polyaromatic hydrocarbon anions, or derivative anions thereof, and the multiply charged cations, or derivative multiply charged cations thereof, wherein said derivative anions and said derivative multiply charged cations are generated within said ion containment device during performance of said method, so as to facilitate electron transfer from the polyaromatic hydrocarbon anions, or said derivative anions thereof, to the multiply charged cations, or derivative multiply charged cations thereof, to induce cleavage of covalent bonds and produce fragment and/or dissociation product cations; and mass (m/z) analyzing and detecting said fragment and/or dissociation product cations or cations derived from said fragment and/or dissociation product cations for mass spectrometric analysis.