Mass spectrometry and chromatography of t-butyldimethylsilyl derivatives of cytokinin bases

Di-(t-butyldimethylsilyl) derivatives of the cytokinin bases zeatin, cis-zeatin, and dihydrozeatin may be prepared quantitatively in the presence of dimethylaminopyridine. These derivatives have good gas chromatographic properties and are very suitable for gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of cytokinin bases. The t-butyldimethylsilyl (tBuDMS) group at N-9 may be selectively hydrolyzed and the resulting mono- O-silyl derivatives are sufficiently stable to be subjected to thin-layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography. The mass spectral fragmentation of the mono- and di-tBuDMS derivatives of adenine, zeatin, cis-zeatin, and dihydrozeatin and also of the mono-tBuDMS derivatives of N 6-isopentenyladenine and 6-benzylaminopurine have been rationalized. The 9-tBuDMS moiety was characterized by an elimination of isobutene (M-56) and of isobutene plus a methyl radical (M-56-15).