Modeling vapor uptake induced mobility shifts in peptide ions observed with transversal modulation ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry

Low field ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry (IMS-MS) techniques exhibit low orthogonality, as inverse mobility often scales with mass to charge ratio. This inadequacy can be mitigated by adding vapor dopants, which may cluster with analyte ions and shift their mobilities by amounts independent of both mass and mobility of the ion. It is therefore important to understand the interactions of vapor dopants with ions, to better quantify the extent of dopant facilitated mobility shifts. Here, we develop predictive models of vapor dopant facilitated mobility shifts, and compare model calculations to measurements of mobility shifts for peptide ions exposed to variable gas phase concentrations of isopropanol. Mobility measurements were made at atmospheric pressure and room temperature using a recently developed transversal modulation ion mobility spectrometer (TMIMS). Results are compared to three separate models, wherein mobility shifts due to vapor dopants are attributed to changes in gas composition and (I) no vapor dopant uptake is assumed, (II) site-specific dopant uptake by the ion is assumed (approximated via a Langmuir adsorption model), and (III) site-unspecific dopant uptake by the ion is assumed (approximated via a classical nucleation model). We find that mobility shifts in peptide ions are in excellent agreement with model II, site-specific binding predictions. Conversely, mobility shifts of tetraalkylammonium ions from previous measurements were compared with these models and best agreement was found with model III predictions, i.e. site-unspecific dopant uptake.