Aerosol Vacuum-Assisted Plasma Ionization (Aero-VaPI) Coupled to Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry

作者：Blair Sandra L; Ng Nga L; Zambrzycki Stephen C; Li Anyin; Fernandez Facundo M^*

来源：Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 2018, 29(4): 635-639.

DOI：10.1007/s13361-017-1872-z

• Plasma ionization
• Aerosol analysis
• Prebiotic chemistry

In this communication, we report on the real-time analysis of organic aerosol particles by Vacuum-assisted Plasma Ionization-Mass Spectrometry (Aero-VaPI-MS) using a home-built VaPI ion source coupled to a Synapt G2-S HDMS ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) system. Standards of organic molecules of interest in prebiotic chemistry were used to generate aerosols. Monocaprin and decanoic acid aerosol particles were successfully detected in both the positive and negative ion modes, respectively. A complex aerosol mixture of different sizes of polymers of L-malic acid was also examined through ion mobility (IM) separations, resulting in the detection of polymers of up to eight monomeric units. This noncommercial plasma ion source is proposed as a low cost alternative to other plasma ionization platforms used for aerosol analysis, and a higher-performance alternative to more traditional aerosol mass spectrometers. VaPI provides robust online ionization of organics in aerosols without extensive ion activation, with the coupling to IM-MS providing higher peak capacity and excellent mass accuracy.

• 出版日期2018-4