Development of a Dual Plasma Desorption/Ionization System for the Noncontact and Highly Sensitive Analysis of Surface...

We developed a dual plasma desorption/ionization system using two plasmas for the semi-invasive analysis of compounds on heat-sensitive substrates such as skin. The first plasma was used for the desorption of the surface compounds, whereas the second was used for the ionization of the desorbed compounds. Using the two plasmas, each process can be optimized individually. A successful analysis of phenyl salicylate and 2-isopropylpyridine was achieved using the developed system. Furthermore, we showed that it was possible to detect the mass signals derived from a sample even at a distance 50 times greater than the distance from the position at which the samples were detached. In addition, to increase the intensity of the mass signal, 0%-0.02% (v/v) of hydrogen gas was added to the base gas generated in the ionizing plasma. We found that by optimizing the gas flow rate through the addition of a small amount of hydrogen gas, it was possible to obtain the intensity of the mass signal that was 45-824 times greater than that obtained without the addition of hydrogen gas.