New chemical evidence for the ability to generate radical molecular ions of polyenes from ESI and HR-MALDI mass spectrometry.

We report here new chemical evidence for the generation of radical molecular ions of compounds with a conjugated pi-system (polyene) in ESI and HR-MALDI mass spectrometry. The oxidation potential of the neutral polyenes was calculated by cyclic-voltammetry and the results compared with those previously published for other complex conjugated compounds that have also been shown to form M*+ in ESI-MS. This study clearly demonstrates the correlation between the oxidation potential and the formation of the M*+ for the polyenes studied.