Unequivocal discrimination between consecutive and competing collisionally induced decompositions in an ion trap

Discrimination between consecutive and competing collisionally induced decomposition (CID) reactions can easily be obtained by a new pocedure consisting of the collisional activation of a parent ion and the simultaneous ejection of one of its daughter ions in an ion trap. This is done by applying, during a single storage phase, a DC voltage appropriate to induce fragmentation (‘boundary’ activation) of the parent and, at the same time, a ‘tickling’ RF potential, sufficient to eject a selected daughter ion rapidly from the trap. Several examples are reported which illustrate the capabilities of the procedure in establishing fragmentation pathways e.g., to determine whether a daughter ion is formed in a stepwise process involving an intermediate primary fragment rather than from the direct fragmentation of the parent ion. Salient features of this technique are discussed.