Mechanistic investigation of ionization suppression in electrospray ionization.

We show results from experiments designed to determine the relative importance of gas phase processes and solution phase processes into ionization suppression observed in biological sample extracts. The data indicate that gas phase reactions leading to the loss of net charge on the analyte is not likely to be the most important process involved in ionization suppression. The results point to changes in the droplet solution properties caused by the presence of nonvolatile solutes as the main cause of ionization suppression in electrospray ionization of biological extracts.