Study of collision-induced dissociation of electrospray-generated protonated cathinones.

The collision-induced dissociation (CID) pathways of electrospray-generated protonated cathinones were examined to help elucidate the structures of new cathinone-based designer drugs by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry. Quadrupole time-of-flight product spectra were obtained for 39 substituted cathinones and were analyzed to derive general CID fragmentation pathways. Nine classes of cathinones were characterized based on structural criteria, including the molecular double bond equivalent and the characteristics of the amine group. For each class of cathinones, we determined the characteristic CID fragmentation pathways, and identified the primary and some specific higher-order product ions.