The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 31, 1998
Filed:
Nov. 27, 1996
Claus Koster, Lilienthal, DE;
Bruker-Franzen Analytik, GmbH, Bremen, DE;
Abstract
The invention relates to methods for the structural analysis of large substance molecules, preferably of chain molecules such as peptides for example, by scanning daughter or fragment ion mass spectra in time-of-flight mass spectrometers with reflectors. The invention consists in the differentiation between daughter ions from spontaneous fragmentations of ions by high-energy collisions and those from delayed fragmentations of metastable ions, by separately detecting the different kinds of ions using a special electrostatic energy filtration by a short Einzel lens directly behind the collision zone. Spontaneously decomposing ions leave the fragmentation zone with smaller kinetic energy due to the loss of mass. Daughter ions from spontaneous decompositions on the one hand, and from metastable decompositions on the other, display characteristic differences which can be used for the determination of structure. Spontaneously decomposing peptide ions preferably show, for example, simultaneously occurring fragmentations of the main and side chains on the then terminal links, while metastable decompositions display no fragmentations of the side chains. In this way, for example, it can be distinguished whether the terminal amino acid is leucine or isoleucine, even though both amino acids have the same mass.