Practice question

Electrospray ionization inherently produces distribution of charge states due to multiple proton attachment, leading to envelope of peaks for single protein species. Tandem mass spectrometry deliberately fragments ions giving many product peaks. Time-of-flight is an analyzer, not ionization mode. MALDI predominantly generates singly protonated species [M+H]+ because matrix-assisted desorption transfers single proton without extensive multiple charging. Consequently, MALDI spectrum of intact peptide typically shows one major monoisotopic peak cluster representing intact molecular weight, simplifying interpretation of purified peptides and enabling rapid assessment of purity, unlike ESI where deconvolution becomes necessary for molecular weight determination complexity.