Mechanistic investigation of photochemical reactions by mass spectrometry.

This Minireview highlights the application of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) to investigating photochemical reactions. We show possible approaches to on-line ESI-MS monitoring of photocatalytic reactions and give examples of the characterization of short-lived photochemical intermediates by ion spectroscopy. The minireview also exemplifies in-depth mass spectrometric studies of photoisomerization reactions and photofragmentation reactions. Apart from mechanistic studies, the coupling of photochemistry and mass spectrometry is a powerful approach to studying structure and properties of biomolecules. We show several examples focused on investigation of intrinsic properties of model biomolecules.