International audienceThe present work describes the first differentiation of enantiomers using the coupling of traveling wave ion mobility and mass spectrometry (TWIM-MS). This study was carried out on amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, which together with nucleotides, polysaccharides or lipids, are the main constituents of all living organisms. Herein, the enantiomers of aromatic amino acids (AA) such as phenylalanine, tryptophan and tyrosine are differentiated by TWIM-MS through their cationisation with copper(II) and multimer formation with D-proline (Pro) as a chiral reference compound. This methodology can be considered as an alternative approach to conventional methods for the separation of enantiomers. Moreover, quantification of the enantiomers can be performed easily and quickly using TWIM-MS analysis of the ionic complex [((D)Pro)(2)+(D/L)AA+Cu-II-H](+)

Petroprophyrins are biomarkers used to extract information about petroleum genesis among other characteristics. Identification of particular types, such as Ni, Cu, Mn, vanadyl (VO), and oxygenated or sulfur-containing porphyrins, typically involves exhaustive isolation and purification processes followed by high-resolution mass spectrometry analysis using atmospheric pressure photoionization [APPI-(+)] or electrospray [ESI-(+)] sources. Simultaneous identification of all porphyrins present in a particular crude oil or organic-matter-rich sediment still remains an analytical challenge. Here, we report a straightforward petroporphyrin isolation and identification methodology based on a single-step liquid–liquid (L–L) extraction (crude oil: acetonitrile) and high-performance thin-layer chromatography fractionation (HPTLC, aminopropyl-bonded silica) followed by selective ionization via electron transfer in matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI-FTICR). Mass spectrometric analysis of the extracts resulted in detection of 350 individual compounds in the acetonitrile extract and 518 in the HPTLC extract, corresponding to the porphyrin families N4VO, N4VO2, N4VO3, N4VOS, and N4Ni as verified by isotopic structure analysis. To the best of our knowledge, this observation constitutes the largest simultaneous identification of Ni, VO, and oxygenated and sulfur-containing porphyrins in a single crude oil sample. In addition, the use of MALDI significantly reduces the amount of sample required for analysis (pico to femtomole levels) in comparison with continuous infusion methods such as APPI and ESI.