Mass spectrometric discrimination between per‐O‐acetylated aldopentoses applied to an oligosaccharide

Abstract
Unimolecular decomposition spectra of oxonium ions from peracetylated pentoses can be used for identification purposes. The fast‐atom bombardment mass spectra of an oligosaccharide with a pentose residue at the non‐reducing terminus also contain this oxonium ion, which allows identification of this monosaccharide residue by a tandem mass spectrometry experiment. The applicability of this method is demonstrated using a xylopentaose.