Our new paper, “Heptafluorobutyl Chloroformate Derivatization Enables Molecular-Ion-Centric Metabolite Screening and Fluorine-Assisted Elemental-Composition Assignment by GC–APCI–HRMS,” has been published in Analytical Chemistry.
In this study, we introduce a rapid metabolite-screening workflow combining one-minute heptafluorobutyl chloroformate (HFBCF) derivatization with GC–APCI–HRMS. The approach generates abundant protonated molecular ions together with characteristic fluorine-containing mass signatures, facilitating molecular-formula assignment and identification of unknown metabolites. Compared with conventional GC–EI–MS, the method provides substantially improved sensitivity and enables metabolite screening even from very limited sample amounts.
The study was carried out by Iva Karlínová, a PhD student in our laboratory, together with researchers from the Biology Centre CAS and collaborating institutions.
Congratulations to Iva and the whole team!
