A series of isobaric disaccharide-alditols, four derived from O-linked glycoproteins, and select trisaccharides were rapidly resolved using tandem high resolution atmospheric pressure ion-mobility time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Electrospray ionization was used to create the gas-phase sodium adducts of each carbohydrate. Using this technique it was possible to separate up to three isobaric disaccharide alditols and three trisaccharides in the gas phase.Reduced mobility values and experimentally determined ion-neutral cross sections are reported for each sodium-carbohydrate complex. These studies demonstrated that ion mobility separations at atmospheric pressure can provide a high-resolution dimension for analysis of carbohydrate ions that is complementary to traditional mass spectral (m/z) ion analysis. Combining these independent principles for separation of ions provides a powerful new bioanalytical tool for the identification of isomeric carbohydrates. In order to fully characterize oligosaccharides derived from biological sources, a number distinct of challenges must be over come. These issues arise primarily from the existence of biological oligosaccharides as sets of isomers. A number of approaches to address isomeric carbohydrate structures using mass spectrometry have been reported. These methods include periodate oxidation/borohydride reduction, followed by hydroxyl methylation or peracetylation [9, 10], derivatization of monosaccharides or short oligosaccharides with amines such as diethylenetriamine at the reducing end followed by metal complexation [11,12], or prediction of possible fragmentation pathways after permethylation [13]. Although modern mass spectrometry is an exquisite tool in itself for the separation of molecules having different m/z values, it cannot rule out the possibility that mass spectra derived from selected precursor ions are not derived from an isobaric mixture. And to complicate matters even further, it is entirely possible that the fragment ions themselves are isobars. On a fundamental level, the stereochemistry of monosaccharides, as product ions derived from a larger molecule, cannot be unambiguously established from a fragmentation pattern. Aldohexoses, for example, come in sixteen different stereochemical variants, and fragmentation data that would uniquely differentiate each of them has yet to be convincingly furnished, particularly where they are derived as product ions from larger molecules. To address the stereochemical blindness of mass spectrometry, product ions must first be separated based upon a physical principle that is not dependent upon m/z prior to fragmentation.Traditional chromatographic methods, most notably liquid and gas, have been used to provide an additional