Chemical ionization mass spectrometry of complex molecules—VI: Peptides

The chemical ionization mass spectra of a series of simple peptides containing six or fewer amino acids have been studied. Using methane as the reactant gas we found cleavage of the peptide bond occurs in two ways, yielding either the acyl carbonium ion or the complementary ammonium ion. The observation of both types of fragments permits the determination of the amino acid sequence of the peptide. The ammonium ions provide an additional sequence determining route compared to that available from electron‐impact spectra. ‘Sequence‐determing ions,’ especially the quasimolecular ion at m/e [M+1] are usually more intense than in the electron‐impact mass spectra.