Discovery of quasi-molecular ions in electrospray spectra by automated searching for simultaneous adduct mass differences

Our high-throughput now injection analysis mass spectrometry (FIA-MS) system using electrospray ionization steers the majority of ion current into quasi molecular ion and adduct m/z positions. One advantage of this dawned on us, i.e., that adducted electrospray spectra are amenable to automated quasi molecular ion discovery by searching for the simultaneous occurrence of adduct mass differences. Therefore, an adduct scanning algorithm was developed, given a graphical user interface, and then incorporated into a Visual Basic application originally developed for reporting of high-throughput FIA-MS results.