Publications by authors named "ChengLi Zu"

The human population will be approximately 9.7 billion by 2050, and food security has been identified as one of the key issues facing the global population. Agrochemicals are an important tool available to farmers that enable high crop yields and continued access to healthy foods, but the average new agrochemical active ingredient takes more than ten years, 350 million dollars, and 20,000 animals to develop and register.

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Several representative pyrimidine derivatives were selected to undergo electrospray ionization (ESI) followed by collision-induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry (CID MS/MS) experiments. Two competitive pathways were found to govern the formation of major fragment ions from protonated species of these molecules. The pathways were largely affected by the 2-O-methyl group but not significantly influenced by the substitution on C-5 site of the pyrimidine ring.

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An ion of m/z 110.06036 (ion formula [C6H8NO](+); error: 0.32 mDa) was observed in the collision induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry experiments of protonated N-(3-aminophenyl)benzamide, which is a rearrangement product ion purportedly through nitrogen-oxygen (N-O) exchange.

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A pair of pseudo-enantiomers, tertiary amine appended trans-4-hydroxyproline derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated as chiral selectors for enantiomer analysis of DNB-amino acid and their amides, in single-stage electrospray ionization/mass spectrometric experiments. The chiral selectors were designed to remove the interaction of the hydroxyl group of trans-4-hydroxyproline as well as separate the ionization site from the sites required for effective chiral recognition. Addition of a chiral analyte to a solution containing two pseudo-enantiomeric chiral selectors, affords selector-analyte complexes in the electrospray ionization mass spectrum where the ratio of these complexes is dependent on the enantiomeric composition of the analyte.

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A derivatization procedure has been developed for the improved characterization of fatty alcohol ethoxylate non-ionic surfactants by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. The end hydroxyl group of each surfactant species was converted into an oxycarbonylbenzene-2-sulfonic acid group with 2-sulfobenzoic anhydride under mild conditions. The produced sulfonic acid group allows all species, including fatty alcohols and those with less than three ethoxylates, to be uniformly ionized by electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry.

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The ability to use mixtures of deprotonated N-(3,5-dinitrobenzoyl)amino acids as chiral selectors for the determination of enantiomeric composition by electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry is demonstrated. For each experiment, two N-(3,5-dinitrobenzoyl)amino acids were chosen such that each would have opposite selectivity for the enantiomers of the analyte. Electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry, monitored in the negative ion mode, of solutions containing the two N-(3,5-dinitrobenzoyl)amino acids, sodium hydroxide, and the analyte, in a one-to-one mixture of methanol and water, afford peaks in the mass spectrum that correspond to the deprotonated 1:1 analyte-selector complexes.

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Derivatives of the chiral selector N-(3,5-dinitrobenzoyl)leucine were prepared and used as chiral selectors for enantiomer discrimination in single-stage electrospray ionization mass spectrometric experiments. The chiral selectors were designed to remove the ionization site from the sites required for effective chiral recognition. Addition of a chiral analyte to a solution of the two pseudoenantiomeric chiral selectors, which differ in absolute stereochemistry and the length of the tether connecting the tertiary amine site used for ionization via protonation and the rest of the chiral selector, affords selector-analyte complexes in the electrospray ionization mass spectrum where the ratio of these complexes is dependent on the enantiomeric composition of the analyte.

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