ESI-MS of Cucurbituril Complexes Under Negative Polarity.

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is a powerful tool to study host-guest supramolecular interactions. ESI-MS can be used for detailed gas-phase reactivity studies, to clarify the structure, or simply to verify the formation of complexes. Depending on the structure of the host and of the guest, negative and/or positive ESI are used.

Photorelease of Incarcerated Caged Acids from Hydrophobic Coumaryl Esters into Aqueous Solution.

Photolysis of aqueous solutions of carboxylic acid esters of 7-(methoxycoumaryl)-4-methanol included within the capsule made up of two molecules of octaacid released the acids in water. The trigger 7-(methoxycoumaryl)-4-methyl chromophore remains within octaacid either as the alcohol or as an adduct with the host octaacid through a hydrogen abstraction process. The method established here offers a procedure to release hydrophobic acid molecules in water at will in a timely manner with light.

Quantitative analysis of biogenic polyamines in distilled drinks by direct electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry using a nanocontainer.

Rationale: Biogenic polyamines in drinks have been implicated in undesirable physiological effects. Methods for their detection and quantification usually involve derivatization, pre-concentration and clean-up. To assist the evaluation of the potential risk of distillates, it was important to develop a simple and fast analytical method, which is described in this study.