RATIONALE
Phenols are an important class of analytes, for example as bioactive environmental contaminants. Towards a goal of improving their detection by MALDI-TOF-MS or MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS, we studied their derivatization with 2-sulfobenzoic anhydride (SBA). We chose SBA for this purpose since it is commercially available, inexpensive, and forms an anionic derivative.
METHODS
In selected conditions developed here for phenols, a reaction mixture of one or more of such compounds in acetonitrile containing SBA and 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) is evaporated to a solid, heated at 60°C for 1 h, redissolved in 50% acetonitrile containing matrix, spotted onto a MALDI target, and subjected to negative ion MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS.
RESULTS
While conventional (solution-phase) reaction of 4-phenylphenol (model analyte) with SBA and DMAP only gave a 47% yield of SBA-tagged 4-phenylphenol, evaporative derivatization as above gave a 96% yield, and 25 pmol (4.3 ng) of 4-phenylphenol could be detected in this way by MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS at S/N = 260, whereas even 1 nmol of the nonderivatized phenol was not detected in the absence of derivatization. A wide range of responses was observed when a mixture of 15 phenols was derivatized, with the higher responses coming from phenols with a pKa value above 9. Without derivatization, phenols with pKa values below 5 were the most readily detected.
CONCLUSION
Evaporative derivatization with SBA (a convenient reagent) can improve the detection of phenols with relatively high pKa values (above 9) by negative ion MALDI-TOF-MS, and accomplish this in the absence of post-derivatization reaction cleanup.