Temperature-resolved thermal analysis of cisplatin by evolved gas analysis-mass spectrometry

Evolved gas analysis-mass spectrometry (EGA-MS), which has high sensitivity and is a simple experimental procedure, was used to study the non-isothermal decomposition of cisplatin at 45–500 °C. Unexpectedly, four peaks appeared in the total ion chromatogram starting at 235 °C, and analysis of the mass spectra of the peaks indicated that cisplatin was thermally unstable and lost NH3 and HCl simultaneously at 235–385 °C. The molecular ion (M+) in the electron impact ionization spectrum of cisplatin was detected for the first time, which confirmed that cisplatin vaporized partially in molecular form. Various ion–molecule reactions occurred to form complex ions at m/z 370 and 335 at the higher part of the temperature range.