The gas-phase basicities and proton affinities of amino acids and peptides

The methods of establishing gas-phase basicities and proton affinities are reviewed, particularly as applied to thermally labile and involatile molecules. The literature on the basicities of amino acids is critically reviewed, and a consistent set of gasphase basicities for cr-amino acids is recommended The problems associated with deriving proton affinities from these data are discussed The literature on the gas-phase basicities of peptides is reviewed, and inconsistencies in the experimental results are discussed. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Mass Spectrom Rev 16: 291-217, 1997.