Electrospray ionization

Electrospray ionization (ESI) is a technique used in mass spectrometry to produce ions using an electrospray in which a high voltage is applied to a liquid to create an aerosol. It is especially useful in producing ions from macromolecules because it overcomes the propensity of these molecules to fragment when ionized. ESI is different from other ionization processes (e.g. matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization, MALDI) since it may produce multiple-charged ions, effectively extending the mass range of the analyser to accommodate the kDa-MDa orders of magnitude observed in proteins and their associated polypeptide fragments.^[1][2]

Mass spectrometry using ESI is called electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) or, less commonly, electrospray mass spectrometry (ES-MS). ESI is a so-called 'soft ionization' technique, since there is very little fragmentation. This can be advantageous in the sense that the molecular ion (or more accurately a pseudo molecular ion) is almost always observed, however very little structural information can be gained from the simple mass spectrum obtained. This disadvantage can be overcome by coupling ESI with tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS). Another important advantage of ESI is that solution-phase information can be retained into the gas-phase.

The electrospray ionization technique was first reported by Masamichi Yamashita and John Fenn in 1984,^[3] and independently by Lidia Gall and co-workers in Soviet Union, also in 1984.^[4] Gall's work was not recognised or translated in the western scientific literature until a translation was published in 2008.^[4] The development of electrospray ionization for the analysis of biological macromolecules^[5] was rewarded with the attribution of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to John Bennett Fenn and Koichi Tanaka in 2002.^[6] One of the original instruments used by Fenn is on display at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.