Attachment of neutrals during tandem mass spectrometry of sulfonic acid dyes and intermediates in an ion trap.

Several positional isomers of 2-(2-quinolinyl)-1H-indene-1,3(2H)-dione mono- and disulfonic acids prepared as reference materials for development of analytical methods involved in FDA certification of D&C Yellow No. 10 (Quinoline Yellow) were found consistently to show [MH + 14](+) ions when their electrospray- or atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-prepared MH(+) ions were subjected to collisional activation. The source of these ions was found to be the methanol used as solvent in these procedures which combined with their [MH - H(2)O](+) ions under chemical ionization conditions. The reaction was found to be sensitive to their isomeric and chemical structures and other examples of this process are reviewed. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.