Electron Capture Dissociation
Electron Capture Dissociation (ECD) is a method of fragmentation of ions in the tandem mass spectrometry .
Electrons with low energy are generated by an emitter cathode . These are of multiply -protonated molecules trapped in the gas phase, with reduced free-radical - cation [M + n H] ( n -1) + · arise. These quickly disintegrate into smaller fragments.
ECD produces significantly different fragment ions than fragmentation processes such as Collision-Induced Dissociation (CID) or Infrared Multiphoton Dissociation ( IRMPD ). These methods increase the internal vibrational energy of an ion - in contrast to the ECD. ECD is mainly used for the investigation of proteins in FT-ICR-MS. A disadvantage of this process is the low yield.