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Characterizing Bacterial Volatiles using Secondary Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (SESI-MS)

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Low-sample flow secondary electrospray ionization: improving vapor ionization efficiency.

G Vidal-de-Miguel¹, M Macía, P Pinacho

¹SEADM S.L. guillermo.vidal@seadm.com

Analytical Chemistry

|September 14, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

A new low-flow secondary electrospray ionization (SESI) system significantly improves ionization efficiency for gaseous analytes. This advancement enhances detection limits for compounds like TNT, enabling sensitive analysis with reduced sample flow.

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Area of Science:

Analytical Chemistry
Mass Spectrometry
Ionization Techniques

Background:

Secondary electrospray ionization (SESI) enables gaseous analyte ionization but suffers from low efficiency due to space charge repulsion and high sample flow requirements.
Existing SESI systems exhibit poor conversion ratios of vapor to ions, limiting their practical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop and evaluate a novel low-flow SESI configuration to overcome the limitations of current SESI systems.
To improve the ionization efficiency and reduce sample flow requirements for gaseous analyte detection.

Main Methods:

A new low-flow SESI ionizer was designed and coupled to a planar differential mobility analyzer (DMA).
The system was tested for its ability to ionize gaseous analytes, specifically TNT, and its performance was compared to existing SESI-API-MS systems.
Analyte detection was performed using a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer.

Main Results:

The low-flow SESI system requires only 0.2 lpm of vapor sample flow to produce 3.5 lpm of ionic flow.
Achieved an ionization efficiency of 1/700 for TNT, representing a 50-100 fold improvement over previous SESI ionizers.
Demonstrated a detection limit of 20 fg (50 million molecules) for TNT with subsequent mobility and MS(2) analysis.

Conclusions:

The developed low-flow SESI configuration significantly enhances ionization efficiency and reduces sample flow needs.
This improved SESI system offers a more sensitive and efficient method for the detection of gaseous analytes.
The technology holds promise for advanced analytical applications requiring high sensitivity and low sample consumption.