AbstractA novel ion dissociation technique, which is capable of providing an efficient fragmentation of peptides at essential atmospheric pressure conditions, is developed. The fragmentation patterns observed often contain c‐type fragments that are specific to electron capture dissociation/electron transfer dissociation (ECD/ETD), along with the y‐/b‐type fragments that are specific to collision‐activated dissociation (CAD). In the presented experimental setup, ion fragmentation takes place within a flow reactor located in the atmospheric pressure region between the ion source and the mass spectrometer. According to a proposed mechanism, the fragmentation results from the interaction of ESI‐generated analyte ions with the gas‐phase radical species produced by a corona discharge source. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.