Molecular identification in metabolomics using infrared ion spectroscopy

Abstract Small molecule identification is a continually expanding field of research and represents the core challenge in various areas of (bio)analytical science, including metabolomics. Here, we unequivocally differentiate enantiomeric N-acetylhexosamines in body fluids using infrared ion spectroscopy, providing orthogonal identification of molecular structure unavailable by standard liquid chromatography/high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry. These results illustrate the potential of infrared ion spectroscopy for the identification of small molecules from complex mixtures.