Gas chromatography - mass spectrometry of sugars and related hydroxy acids as trimethylsilyl derivatives

The application of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry has contributed to the rapid progress of carbohydrate chemistry during the past ten years. The methods are indispensable tools in current research on carbohydrate reactions during pulping processes.<p> Acyclic ether, ester, and oxime trimethylsilyl derivatives are useful for gas chromatographic analysis of alditols, aldoses, ketoses, aldonic acids, aldaric acids and uronic acids. These derivatives have been studied in detail by mass spectrometry and shown to be advantageous for structural analysis. The mass spectrometric fragmentation of glycosidic trimethylsilyl derivatives has also been investigated. An important application is the identification of products from methylation analysis