Molecular structure of fulvic acids by electrospray with quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

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Abstract
Characterisation of the molecular structure of aquatic fulvic acids (FA) has been performed using a quadrupole time‐of‐flight (Q‐TOF) mass spectrometer equipped with an electrospray ionisation interface. Molecular masses centred around 450 Da and sinusoidal spectral distributions have been obtained for all fulvic acids. Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) experiments showed losses of 18 Da (H2O) and 44 Da (CO2), and possible molecular structures were determined for the first time to our knowledge. A methodology is reported for evaluating the average elemental composition of FA from high‐resolution mass spectra by processing post‐acquisition data calculations using molecular size distributions and atomic compositions of ions. The results are found to be consistent with elemental analysis data. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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