Looking through the Mass-to-Charge Ratio: Past, Present and Future Perspectives

Abstract

The mass spectrometry (MS) provides the mass-to-charge ratios of atoms, molecules, stable/metastable complexes, and their fragments. I have taken a long journey with MS to address outstanding issues and problems by experiments and theory and gain insights into underlying principles in chemistry. By looking through the mass-to-charge ratio, I have studied thermo- chemical problems in silicon chemistry, the infrared multiphoton dissociation spectroscopy of organometallic intermediates, uni- molecular dissociations of halotoluene radical cations, and the kinetics of association/dissociation of alkali halide triple ions with Lewis bases. Various MS platforms have been used to characterize non-covalent interactions between porphyrins and fullerenes and those between the group IIB ions and trioctylchalcogenides, and to examine the binding of the group IA, IIA and porphyrin ions to G-quadruplex DNA. Recently, I have focused on mass-balanced H/D isotope dipeptide tags for MS-based quantitative proteomics, a simple chemical modification method for MS-based lipase assay, and the kinetics and dynamics of energy-variable collision-induced dissociation of chemically modified peptides. Now, I see an important role of MS in global issues in the post- COVID era, as the society demands high standards for indoor air quality to contain the airborne-pathogen transmission as well as in-situ monitoring and tracking of carbon emissions to reduce global warming.