Electron ionization mass spectrometry: Quo vadis?

Mass spectrometry (MS) is a fundamental technique to identify compounds by their mass-to-charge ratio. It is known that MS can only detect target compounds when they are converted to ions in the gas phase. The ionization procedure is considered one of the most critical steps, and there are distinct techniques for it. One of them is electron ionization (EI), a widely used hard-ionization technique capable of generating several ions due to the excess energy employed. The existence of distinct ionization mechanisms turns EI capable of producing a fingerprint-like spectrum for each molecule. So, it is an essential technique for obtaining structural information. EI is often combined with chromatography to obtain a practical introduction of pretreated samples despite its excellent performance. EI-MS has been applied coupled with gas chromatography (GC) since the 1960s as both are very compatible. Currently, analytes of interest are more suitable for liquid chromatography (LC) analysis, so there are researchers dedicated to developing suitable interfaces for coupling LC and EI-MS. EI excels, as a reliable technique to fill the gap between GC and LC, possibly allowing them to coexist in a single instrument. In this work, the authors will present the fundamentals of EI-MS, emphasizing the development over the years, coupling with gas and LC, and future trends.