American Chemical Society, Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 7(26), p. 1186-1190, 2015
DOI: 10.1007/s13361-015-1104-3
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Protonated hexaazamacrocycle [M•H](+) is able to detect K(+) ions present at ppb level in methanolic solutions containing 10(-5) M of Na(+) ions. The high sensitivity and selectivity of [M•H](+) for K(+) is ascribed to the favorable energy balance between the K(+) ion desolvation and its coordination to the [M•H](+) macrocycle, which allows the formation of the corresponding adduct before the Coulombic explosion of the ESI-MS nanodroplets.