  Infrared vibrational spectroscopy in the gas phase has emerged as a powerful
tool to determine complex molecular structures with Angstrom accuracy. Among
the different approaches IRMPD (InfraRed Multiple Photon Dissociation), which
requires the use of an intense pulsed tunable laser in the IR domain, has been
broadly applied to the study of complex (bio)molecules. Recently, it also
emerged as a highly relevant approach for analytical purposes especially in the
field of glycomics in which structural analysis is still a tremendous
challenge. This opens the perspective to develop new analytical tools allowing
for the determination of molecular structures with atomic precision, and to
address advanced questions in the field. However, IRMPD experiments require
either non commercial equipments and long acquisition time which limits the
data output. Here we show that it is possible to improve the IRMPD performances
by optimizing the combination between a LTQ XL mass spectrometer and a high
repetition tunable laser Firefly. Two orders of magnitude are gained with this
approach compared to usual experiments ultimately leading to a completely
resolved spectrum acquired in less than one minute. These results open the way
to many new applications in glycomics with the possibility to include IRMPD in
complex analytical workflows.
