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Updated: May 29, 2026

Analysis of Volatile and Oxidation Sensitive Compounds Using a Cold Inlet System and Electron Impact Mass Spectrometry
Published on: September 5, 2014
Inlet ionization: a new highly sensitive approach for liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry of small and large
Vincent S Pagnotti1, Ellen D Inutan, Darrell D Marshall
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of the Science, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Abstract:
Inlet ionization is a new approach for ionizing both small and large molecules in solids or liquid solvents with high sensitivity. The utility of solvent based inlet ionization mass spectrometry (MS) as a method for analysis of volatile and nonvolatile compounds eluting from a liquid chromatography (LC) column is demonstrated. This new LC/MS approach uses reverse phase solvent systems common to electrospray ionization MS. The first LC/MS analyses using this novel approach produced sharp chromatographic peaks and good quality full mass range mass spectra for over 25 peptides from injection of only 1 pmol of a tryptic digest of bovine serum albumin using an eluent flow rate of 55 μL min(-1). Similarly, full acquisition LC/MS/MS of the MH(+) ion of the drug clozapine, using the same solvent flow rate, produced a signal-to-noise ratio of 54 for the major fragment ion with injection of only 1 μL of a 2 ppb solution. LC/MS results were acquired on two different manufacturer's mass spectrometers using a Waters Corporation NanoAcquity liquid chromatograph.
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