An improved mass spectrometry method comprises the analysis of ferrocenyl boronate derivatives of compounds of interest. Chemical derivatization with ferrocenyl boronate overcomes problems resolving small structural differences in a variety of biologically important compounds, including carbohydrates, ultimately increasing the propensity of an analyte to ionize and provide quality fragmentation during successive rounds of electrospray MS. The resultant full scan spectra reflect large amounts of structural information.
