Speciation of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite using kiloelectronvolt energy atomic and polyatomic and...

The negative-ion mass spectra produced by kiloelectronvolt energy (CsI)nCs+ (n = 0-2) and megaelectronvolt energy 252Cf fission fragment projectile impacts on NaNO3 and NaNO2 were collected and compared. The mass spectra generated by impacts of the kiloelectronvolt polyatomic primary ions on NaNO3 were markedly different from those derived from the fission fragment impacts, featuring higher relative intensities of nitrate (NO3-) specific secondary ions (those that reflect the sample stoichiometry). The most prominent secondary ion (SI) peaks produced from NaNO3 by the kiloelectronvolt energy projectiles were NO3- and Na(NO3)2-, both of which relate directly back to the chemical composition of the staring material. Likewise, the most prominent peaks produced by the kiloelectronvolt energy polyatomic projectile impacts on NaNO2 were NO2- and Na(NO2)2-. The fission fragment projectiles produced SI spectra from NaNO3 that were dominated by signals characteristic more of NaNO2, indicating that the megaelectronvolt energy ions induce considerable degradation of the nitrate solid. In addition, the fission fragment projectile produced relative negative SI intensity distributions that are remarkably similar to those reported in earlier studies of the use of laser desorption to produce SI signals from NaNO3. Of the projectiles examined in this study, the 20 keV (CsI)Cs+ projectile generated negative-ion mass spectra that best differentiated NaNO3 and NaNO2, primarily by producing a base peak in the NaNO3 spectrum that was unambiguously representative of the original sample stoichiometry.