Abstract:
This study introduces an LC-MS method that performs rapid, online epoxidation of lipid C-C double bonds through plasma microdroplet fusion during electrospray, enabling deep structural lipidomics without modifying the mass spectrometer. By merging nonthermal plasma with charged microdroplets post column, the system generates epoxide products in real time and allows conventional CID MS/MS to localize double bond positions across diverse lipid classes. Using a C12 reverse phase column, the method successfully separates both polar and nonpolar lipids, including challenging positional isomers, and employs automated data dependent acquisition for comprehensive characterization. Application to extra virgin olive oil demonstrates the approach’s ability to identify coeluting isomers and reveal previously unreported triacylglycerols, highlighting its value for complex lipid analysis.
Authors:
Niraj K. Panday, Alexander J. Grooms, Santosh R. Acharya, Abraham K. Badu-Tawiah