Characterization of Ion Fragmentations of Fatty Acids

摘要

Ion fragmentations of fatty acids such as stearic acid, palmitic acid, myristic acid, and lauric acid were studied using mass spectrometry and semiempirical calculations. The mass spectra of fatty acids showed the distributions of CH3(CH2)n+ and [(CH2)nCO2H]+ fragment ions. The relative ion abundance distributions of [(CH2)nCO2H]+ showed the local maxima at n=6, 10, and 14. The local maximum phenomena were also found in the mass spectra of methyl stearate but not in those of normal alcohols. These local maxima could be explained not by heats of reaction for fragmentation but by the cyclic structures of the molecular ions. The AM1 semiempirical calculations for fatty acids clearly show that the linear structures are more favorable than the cyclic ones for neutral molecules while the cyclic structures are more favorable than the linear ones for ionic molecules. The distances between carboxyl group and methylene of the cylic structures of ionized fatty acids were calculated. The methylene carbons with n=6, 10, and 14 were closer to the carboxyl group than adjacent ones.