Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is an aminopolycarboxylic acid and complexation agent that is able to bind a large variety of metals. The formation of highly stable metal-EDTA complexes is generally very quick. This has led to the use of EDTA in a variety of applications, including food, medical, and household applications. In the current study, we have investigated the fragmentation behavior of EDTA and various metal complexes under collision-induced dissociation (CID), infrared-multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD), and higher-energy collisional dissociation (HCD) activation conditions. Both, positive and negative mode electrospray ionization (ESI) were applied. The metals used to complex with EDTA ranged from alkaline earth metals, such as sodium and cesium, via calcium, nickel, zinc, aluminum, copper, iron, and indium to yttrium and several lanthanides. Furthermore, the protonated and deprotonated species of EDTA, as well as disodium and trisodium species, have been subjected to fragmentation. The results show that characteristic fragmentations were obtained for EDTA and the metal complexes under the investigated conditions. The use of an ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) and an Orbitrap mass spectrometer, as high resolution-accurate mass instruments, allowed the assignment of elemental compositions undoubtedly for the vast majority of fragments. Certain trends were observed that trend correlated with the size of the metal and the location within the periodic table.

中文翻译：

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EDTA配合物在不同活化条件下的断裂行为

乙二胺四乙酸 (EDTA) 是一种氨基多羧酸和络合剂，能够结合多种金属。高度稳定的金属-EDTA 络合物的形成通常非常快。这导致在各种应用中使用 EDTA，包括食品、医疗和家庭应用。在目前的研究中，我们研究了 EDTA 和各种金属配合物在碰撞诱导解离 (CID)、红外多光子解离 (IRMPD) 和高能碰撞解离 (HCD) 活化条件下的碎裂行为。应用了正负模式电喷雾电离（ESI）。用于与 EDTA 络合的金属包括碱土金属，如钠和铯，以及钙、镍、锌、铝、铜、铁、和铟到钇和几种镧系元素。此外，EDTA 的质子化和去质子化物质，以及二钠和三钠物质，都已发生断裂。结果表明，在所研究的条件下，EDTA 和金属配合物获得了特征性的碎裂。使用离子回旋共振 (ICR) 和 Orbitrap 质谱仪作为高分辨率精确的质量仪器，无疑可以确定绝大多数碎片的元素组成。观察到某些趋势，该趋势与金属的大小和元素周期表中的位置相关。结果表明，在所研究的条件下，EDTA 和金属配合物获得了特征性的碎裂。使用离子回旋共振 (ICR) 和 Orbitrap 质谱仪作为高分辨率精确的质量仪器，无疑可以确定绝大多数碎片的元素组成。观察到某些趋势，该趋势与金属的大小和元素周期表中的位置相关。结果表明，在所研究的条件下，EDTA 和金属配合物获得了特征性的碎裂。使用离子回旋共振 (ICR) 和 Orbitrap 质谱仪作为高分辨率精确的质量仪器，无疑可以确定绝大多数碎片的元素组成。观察到某些趋势，该趋势与金属的大小和元素周期表中的位置相关。