Traveling wave ion mobility mass spectrometry study of low generation polyamidoamine dendrimers.

We reported the use of ion mobility (IM) combined with mass spectrometry (MS) as an analytical tool to investigate low generation polyamidoanine (PAMAM) dendrimers. This analytical approach has been employed to separate ions of defective structures with different charge state but exactly the same m/z value. Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) after IM separation allowed a comprehensive structural characterization of defective dendrimers. In addition, IM was used to evaluate the collision cross-sections of ions of perfect dendrimers. They showed a good correlation with calculated collision cross-sections obtained by the trajectory method (TM) and were also consistent with dimensions reported by other established analytical methods.