Photo induced dissociation of amino acids free from thermal degradation effects: A case study applied to DL-Valine

We present a careful study of the thermal degradation effects in the mass spectrum of DL-Valine using a quadrupole mass spectrometer and a time of flight – mass spectrometer. This allows setting the temperature of 95±10°C as threshold for the sublimation of our solid sample. Based on the assignments for each ionic fragment detected, it is possible to separate the mass peaks in groups, explaining what are the principal bond breaks involved in the specific ionic yield, whose procedure can be extended to other amino acids.