Arylboronic acid chemistry under electrospray conditions.

Boronic acids are important in the organic and biological arenas. Thus, their identification and characterization are important. ESI-MS is a well-known tool for such uses. Herein we report a systematic analysis of the chemical behavior of arylboronic acids under ESI-MS conditions. Such information will be very critical to understanding the gas-phase chemistry of boronic acids in an ESI mass spectrometer ion source in general and the MS analysis of boronic acids and their macromolecular conjugates in particular.