Shimadzu Corporation has released the oxygen attachment dissociation (OAD)-time-of-flight (TOF) system as the world’s first quadrupole TOF mass spectrometer to provide detailed structural analyses of lipids and other natural compounds.

The OAD technology developed by Shimadzu enables estimation of the position of double bonds between carbon atoms, a typically difficult task. In evaluating and searching for compounds, the position where carbon atoms are strongly joined together (the double bonds between carbon atoms) is an important factor inSource: Shimadzu Corporation determining the characteristics of a compound. Research and development in the fields of pharmaceuticals and food products require the elucidation of structures including the position of bonds between carbon atoms, which has been difficult to determine with conventional methods.

In OAD, atomic oxygen is made to react with the ionized sample, and the double bonds between carbon atoms are selectively broken (dissociated). Information on the position of the double bonds between carbon atoms is then obtained from the ion fragments generated by the dissociation. A quadrupole TOF mass spectrometer measures the size and amount of samples separated at the atomic and molecular levels, thereby obtaining precise information on compounds. In combination, these techniques elucidate the structure of all types of compounds, including lipids and other biological materials.