Rapid preseparation of interferences for ion mobility spectrometry

Two new approaches to reduce false positive interferences commonly observed with explosives and drugs detection in the field were reported for ion mobility spectrometry (IMS). One of the approaches involved the rapid preseparation of potential interferences prior to detection by IMS. Firstly, it was found that the introduction of a short column packed with adsorption packing material before an IMS could help to reduce the false positive rates. Secondly, the retention time at which the most intense response occurred over the analysis time period could be utilized to separate false positive responses from target analytes with the same drift times. Rapid preseparation of potential interferences provided a greater degree of confidence for the detection (in less than 30 s) of drugs, explosives and chemical warfare agents (CWAs). Detection limits as low as 10 pg of TNT with a sensitivity of 12 A g⁻¹ were reported. Successful development of this technique may lead to the construction of a simple interface fitted with a short column of adsorption packing material to enhance either initial separation or to hold-back interferences mixed with explosive and drug responses in the field.     

Separation of benzodiazepines by electrospray ionization ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry

Benzodiazepines are a commonly abused class of drugs; requiring analytical techniques that can separate and detect the drugs in a rapid time period. In this paper, the two-dimensional separation of five benzodiazepines was shown by electrospray ionization (ESI) ion mobility spectrometry (IMS)-mass spectrometry (MS). In this study, both the two dimensions of separation (m/z and mobility) and the high resolution of our IMS instrument enabled confident identification of each of the five benzodiazepines studied. This was a significant improvement over previous IMS studies that could not separate many of the analytes due to low instrumental resolution. The benzodiazepines that contain a hydroxyl group in their molecular structure (lorazepam and oxazepam) were found to form both the protonated molecular ion and dehydration product as predominant ions. Experiments to isolate the parametric reasons for the dehydration ion formation showed that it was not the result of corona discharge processes or the potential applied to the needle. However, the potential difference between the needle and first drift ring did influence both the relative intensity ratios of the two ions and the ion sensitivity.     

Profiling and imaging of tissues by imaging ion mobility-mass spectrometry

Molecular profiling and imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) of tissues can often result in complex spectra that are difficult to interpret without additional information about specific signals. This report describes increasing data dimensionality in IMS by combining two-dimensional separations at each spatial location on the basis of imaging ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS). Analyte ions are separated on the basis of both ion-neutral collision cross section and m/z, which provides rapid separation of isobaric, but structurally distinct ions. The advantages of imaging using ion mobility prior to MS analysis are demonstrated for profiling of human glioma and selective lipid imaging from rat brain.     

Resolving interferences in negative mode ion mobility spectrometry using selective reactant ion chemistry

During the investigation of the degradation products of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) using ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP) were found to have IMS responses which overlapped those of the TNT degradation products. It was observed that the Cl(-) reactant ion chemistry, often used for explosives analysis, was not always successful in resolving peak overlap of analytes and interferents. It is shown here that resolution of the analytes and interferences can sometimes be achieved using only air for the formation of reactant ions, at other times through the use of Br(-) as an alternative to Cl(-) for producing reactant ions, and also through the promotion of adduct stability by lowering the IMS temperature.     

Analysis of explosives using electrospray ionization/ion mobility spectrometry (ESI/IMS)

The analysis of explosives with ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) directly from aqueous solutions was shown for the first time using an electrospray ionization technique. The IMS was operated in the negative mode at 250°C and coupled with a quadrupole mass spectrometer to identify the observed IMS peaks. The IMS response characteristics of trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT), 2-amino-4,6-dinitrotoluene (2-ADNT), 4-nitrotoluene (4-NT), trinitrobenzene (TNB), cyclo-1,3,5-trimethylene-2,4,6-trinitramine (RDX), cyclo-tetramethylene-tetranitramine (HMX), dinitro-ethyleneglycol (EGDN) and nitroglycerine (NG) were investigated. Several breakdown products, predominantly NO₂⁻ and NO₃⁻, were observed in the low-mass region. Nevertheless, all compounds with the exception of NG produced at least one ion related to the intact molecule and could therefore be selectively detected. For RDX and HMX the [M+Cl⁻]⁻ cluster ion was the main peak and the signal intensities could be greatly enhanced by the addition of small amounts of sodium chloride to the sprayed solutions. The reduced mobility constants (K₀) were in good agreement with literature data obtained from experiments where the explosives were introduced into the IMS from the vapor phase. The detection limits were in the range of 15–190 μg l⁻¹ and all calibration curves showed good linearity. A mixture of TNT, RDX and HMX was used to demonstrate the high separation potential of the IMS system. Baseline separation of the three compounds was attained within a total analysis time of 6.4 s.     

Ion mobility-mass spectrometry

This review article compares and contrasts various types of ion mobility-mass spectrometers available today and describes their advantages for application to a wide range of analytes. Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), when coupled with mass spectrometry, offers value-added data not possible from mass spectra alone. Separation of isomers, isobars, and conformers; reduction of chemical noise; and measurement of ion size are possible with the addition of ion mobility cells to mass spectrometers. In addition, structurally similar ions and ions of the same charge state can be separated into families of ions which appear along a unique mass-mobility correlation line. This review describes the four methods of ion mobility separation currently used with mass spectrometry. They are (1) drift-time ion mobility spectrometry (DTIMS), (2) aspiration ion mobility spectrometry (AIMS), (3) differential-mobility spectrometry (DMS) which is also called field-asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) and (4) traveling-wave ion mobility spectrometry (TWIMS). DTIMS provides the highest IMS resolving power and is the only IMS method which can directly measure collision cross-sections. AIMS is a low resolution mobility separation method but can monitor ions in a continuous manner. DMS and FAIMS offer continuous-ion monitoring capability as well as orthogonal ion mobility separation in which high-separation selectivity can be achieved. TWIMS is a novel method of IMS with a low resolving power but has good sensitivity and is well intergrated into a commercial mass spectrometer. One hundred and sixty references on ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IMMS) are provided.     

The use of dopants in high field asymmetric waveform spectrometry

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is proven core technology for the gas-phase detection of chemical warfare (CW) agents. One disadvantage of IMS technology is that ions of similar mobility cannot readily be resolved, resulting in false alarm responses and a loss of user confidence. High field asymmetric waveform spectrometry (HiFAWS) is an emerging technology for the gas-phase detection of CW agents. Of particular interest is the potential of a HiFAWS-based platform to reduce the number of false alarms by resolving ions that cannot be discriminated using IMS. It has been demonstrated that a water clustering/declustering mechanism can be a dominant process in HiFAWS. Ions that cannot be discriminated in IMS because they possess the same low field mobility value can be resolved using HiFAWS due to differences in the extent of low field ion solvation and high field ion desolvation. When operating in complex environments such as those potentially experienced in military and security arenas, IMS systems commonly employ internal dopants to reduce the number of background responses. It is possible that HiFAWS systems may also require the use of internal dopants for the same reason. It has been demonstrated that dopants employed for use in IMS may not be suitable for use in HiFAWS.     

Improvement using chemometrics in ion mobility coupled to mass spectrometry as a tool for mass spectrometry fragmentation studies: Flavonoid aglycone cases

A chemometric method for the treatment of ion mobility coupled to mass spectrometry (IMS/MS) data is proposed as a complementary tool for obtaining experimental evidence for the study of MS fragmentations, which can provide a direct and automatable methodology for characterising ionic series and the hierarchy of all product ions of an MS spectrum.     

单向气流负电晕放电离子迁移谱的研究及其在爆炸物检测中的应用

基于离子迁移谱的爆炸物探测仪多采用放射性电离源,发展非放射性电离源一直是该技术的研究热点。本研究基于电晕放电原理设计了一种新型负电晕放电电离源结构,结合自行研制的离子迁移谱仪,应用于痕量爆炸物的快速、高灵敏检测。单向气流模式下,对此电离源的气流、放电电压等运行参数进行了系统优化,得到最佳实验条件为：电晕放电电离源结构的电极环孔直径为3 mm,针-环距离为2 mm,放电电压为2400 V,漂气流速为1200 mL/min。在此条件下,避免了放电副产物氮氧化物和臭氧等引发的一系列复杂反应,得到了单一的反应试剂离子O-2(H2O)n。将其应用于爆炸物,如2,4,6-三硝基甲苯(TNT)、硝酸铵(AN)、硝化甘油( NG)、太安( PETN)、黑索金( RDX)等的高灵敏快速直接检测,对TNT的检测限达到200 pg/μL。结果表明,此负电晕放电电离源具有灵敏度高、结构简单、无辐射性、反应试剂离子单一等优点,在爆炸物快速高灵敏检测、公共安全保障等方面具有广阔的应用前景。     

Structure selective ion molecule interactions (SSIMI) in ion mobility spectrometry

The overall objective of this project was to develop an analytical method that utilizes structure selective ion molecule interactions (SSIMI) in ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) to shift the mobility of a targeted analyte through the addition of a gas phase modifier to the buffer gas. IMS is a sensitive, rapid method for the detection of harmful chemicals; however false alarm responses do occur and a reduction in their frequency decrease both the cost and time required for detection. The investigation reported here probed the effects of a series of buffer gas modifiers on the mobilities of chemical warfare agent simulants (CWAs), toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) and a known interference (butyl carbitol) found in fire extinguishing agents. The major finding of this research was that a modifier with a proton affinity similar to, but not greater than, the target analyte produced the greatest changes in mobilities due to the formation of an ion cluster between the neutral modifier and target analyte ion. Mass spectrometry was utilized to confirm the formation of ion-neutral clusters that caused the target ion to shift its mobility. While a number of modifiers were screened, acetonitrile and isobutyronitrile were found to have sufficiently selective SSIMI with the target compound. For example, in the presence of acetonitrile modifier, the protonated response ion of the CWA simulant DMMP, [DMMP]H⁺, had a mobility shift of 10.8 %, but the mobility was unchanged for the interferent, butyl carbitol. The mobility of the simulant DMMP decreased with the introduction of modifiers, while the mobility of the interference did not change, demonstrating the potential of the SSIMI technique for reducing false alarm rates.     

Evaluation of suspected interferents for TNT detection by ion mobility spectrometry

The use of ion mobility spectrometry systems to detect explosives in high security situations creates a need to determine compounds that interfere and may compromise accurate detection. This is the first study to identify possible interfering air contaminants common in airport settings by IMS. Seventeen suspected contaminants from four major sources were investigated. Due to the ionization selectivity gained by employing chloride reactant ion chemistry, only 7 of the 17 compounds showed an IMS response. Of those seven compounds, only 4,6-dinitro-o-cresol (4,6DNOC) was found to have a similar mobility to 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) with K(o) values of 1.55 and 1.50 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), respectively. Although baseline resolution between TNT and 4,6DNOC was not achieved, the drift time for TNT was still easily identified. Alkyl-nitrated phenols, due to acidic fog, responded the strongest in the IMS. The effect of contamination on TNT sensitivity was investigated. Charge competition between TNT and 2,4-dinitrophenol (2,4DNP) was found to occur and to effect TNT sensitivity.     

Ion mobility spectrometry for the rapid analysis of over-the-counter drugs and beverages

In the pharmaceutical industry, there are increasing requirements for analytical methods in quality assessment for the production of drugs. In this investigation, ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) was used for the rapid qualitative separation and identification of active ingredients in generic over-the-counter drugs and food additives in beverages. The active ingredients determined in drugs were acetaminophen, aspartame, bisacodyl, caffeine, dextromethorphan, diphenhydramine, famotidine, glucosamine, guaifenesin, loratadine, niacin, phenylephrine, pyridoxine, thiamin, and tetrahydrozoline. Aspartame and caffeine were determined in beverages. Fourteen over-the-counter drugs and beverages were analyzed. Analysis times below 10 s were obtained for IMS, and reduced mobilities were reported for the first time for 12 compounds. A quadrupole mass spectrometer coupled to a mobility spectrometer was used to assure a correct peak assignation. The combination of fast analysis, low cost, and inexpensive maintenance of IMS instruments makes IMS an attractive technique for the qualitative determination of the active ingredients in over-the-counter drugs and food additives in manufacture quality control and cleaning verification for the drug and food industries.     

Developments in ion mobility spectrometry–mass spectrometry

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has been used for over 30 years as a sensitive detector of organic compounds. The following is a brief review of IMS and its principles with an emphasis on its usage when coupled to mass spectrometry. Since its inception, IMS has been interfaced with quadrupole, time-of-flight, and Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. These hybrid instruments have been employed for the analysis of a variety of target analytes, including biomolecules, explosives, chemical warfare degradation products, and illicit drugs.     

A critical review of ion mobility spectrometry for the detection of explosives and explosive related compounds

Ion mobility spectrometry has become the most successful and widely used technology for the detection of trace levels of nitro-organic explosives on handbags and carry on-luggage in airports throughout the US. The low detection limits are provided by the efficient ionization process, namely, atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) reactions in negative polarity. An additional level of confidence in a measurement is imparted by characterization of ions for mobilities in weak electric fields of a drift tube at ambient pressure. Findings from over 30 years of investigations into IMS response to these explosives have been collected and assessed to allow a comprehensive view of the APCI reactions characteristic of nitro-organic explosives. Also, the drift tube conditions needed to obtain particular mobility spectra have been summarized. During the past decade, improvements have occurred in IMS on the understanding of reagent gas chemistries, the influence of temperature on ion stability, and sampling methods. In addition, commercial instruments have been refined to provide fast and reliable measurements for on-site detection of explosives. The gas phase ion chemistry of most explosives is mediated by the fragile CONO(2) bonds or the acidity of protons. Thus, M(-) or M.Cl(-) species are found with only a few explosives and loss of NO(2), NO(3) and proton abstraction reactions are common and complicating pathways. However, once ions are formed, they appear to have stabilities on time scales equal to or longer than ion drift times from 5-20 ms. As such, peak shapes in IMS are suitable for high selectivity and sensitivity.     

Metabolic profiling of Escherichia coli by ion mobility-mass spectrometry with MALDI ion source

Comprehensive metabolome analysis using mass spectrometry (MS) often results in a complex mass spectrum and difficult data analysis resulting from the signals of numerous small molecules in the metabolome. In addition, MS alone has difficulty measuring isobars and chiral, conformational and structural isomers. When a matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) source is added, the difficulty and complexity are further increased. Signal interference between analyte signals and matrix ion signals produced by MALDI in the low mass region (<1500 Da) cause detection and/or identification of metabolites difficult by MS alone. However, ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) coupled with MS (IM-MS) provides a rapid analytical tool for measuring subtle structural differences in chemicals. IMS separates gas-phase ions based on their size-to-charge ratio. This study, for the first time, reports the application of MALDI to the measurement of small molecules in a biological matrix by ion mobility-time of flight mass spectrometry (IM-TOFMS) and demonstrates the advantage of ion-signal dispersion in the second dimension. Qualitative comparisons between metabolic profiling of the Escherichia coli metabolome by MALDI-TOFMS, MALDI-IM-TOFMS and electrospray ionization (ESI)-IM-TOFMS are reported. Results demonstrate that mobility separation prior to mass analysis increases peak-capacity through added dimensionality in measurement. Mobility separation also allows detection of metabolites in the matrix-ion dominated low-mass range (m/z < 1500 Da) by separating matrix signals from non-matrix signals in mobility space.     

Buffer gas additives (modifiers/shift reagents) in ion mobility spectrometry: Applications,predictions of mobility shifts,and influence of interaction energy and structure

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is an analytical technique used for fast and sensitive detection of illegal substances in customs and airports, diagnosis of diseases through detection of metabolites in breath, fundamental studies in physics and chemistry, space exploration, and many more applications. Ion mobility spectrometry separates ions in the gas‐phase drifting under an electric field according to their size to charge ratio. Ion mobility spectrometry disadvantages are false positives that delay transportation, compromise patient's health and other negative issues when IMS is used for detection. To prevent false positives, IMS measures the ion mobilities in 2 different conditions, in pure buffer gas or when shift reagents (SRs) are introduced in this gas, providing 2 different characteristic properties of the ion and increasing the chances of right identification. Mobility shifts with the introduction of SRs in the buffer gas are due to clustering of analyte ions with SRs. Effective SRs are polar volatile compounds with free electron pairs with a tendency to form clusters with the analyte ion. Formation of clusters is favored by formation of stable analyte ion‐SR hydrogen bonds, high analytes' proton affinity, and low steric hindrance in the ion charge while stabilization of ion charge by resonance may disfavor it. Inductive effects and the number of adduction sites also affect cluster formation. The prediction of IMS separations of overlapping peaks is important because it simplifies a trial and error procedure. Doping experiments to simplify IMS spectra by changing the ion‐analyte reactions forming the so‐called alternative reactant ions are not considered in this review and techniques other than drift tube IMS are marginally covered.     

Time-of-flight ion mobility spectrometry and differential mobility spectrometry: A comparative study of their efficiency in the analysis of halogenated compounds

The ion mobilities of halogenated aromatics which are of interest in environmental chemistry and process monitoring were characterized with field-deployable ion mobility spectrometers and differential mobility spectrometers. The dependence of mobility of gas-phase ions formed by atmospheric-pressure photoionization (APPI) on the electric field was determined for a number of structural isomers. The structure of the product ions formed was identified by investigations using the coupling of ion mobility spectrometry with mass spectrometry (APPI-IMS-MS) and APPI-MS. In contrast to conventional time-of-flight ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) with constant linear voltage gradients in drift tubes, differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) employs the field dependence of ion mobility. Depending on the position of substituents, differences in field dependence were established for the isomeric compounds in contrast to conventional IMS in which comparable reduced mobility values were detected for the isomers investigated. These findings permit the differentiation between most of the investigated isomeric aromatics with a different constitution using DMS.     

Ion mobility spectrometry – Mass spectrometry coupling for synthetic polymers

This review covers applications of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) hyphenated to mass spectrometry (MS) in the field of synthetic polymers. MS has become an essential technique in polymer science, but increasingly complex samples produced to provide desirable macroscopic properties of high‐performance materials often require separation of species prior to their mass analysis. Similar to liquid chromatography, the IMS dimension introduces shape selectivity but enables separation at a much faster rate (milliseconds vs minutes). As a post‐ionization technique, IMS can be hyphenated to MS to perform a double separation dimension of gas‐phase ions, first as a function on their mobility (determined by their charge state and collision cross section, CCS), then as a function of their m/z ratio. Implemented with a variety of ionization techniques, such coupling permits the spectral complexity to be reduced, to enhance the dynamic range of detection, or to achieve separation of isobaric ions prior to their activation in MS/MS experiments. Coupling IMS to MS also provides valuable information regarding the 3D structure of polymer ions in the gas phase and regarding how to address the question of how charges are distributed within the structure. Moreover, the ability of IMS to separate multiply charged species generated by electrospray ionization yields typical IMS‐MS 2D maps that permit the conformational dynamics of synthetic polymer chains to be described as a function of their length.     

Solid phase micro-extraction coupled with ion mobility spectrometry for the analysis of ephedrine in urine

Quantitative solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) coupled with ion mobility spectrometry is demonstrated using the analysis of ephedrine in urine. Since its inception in the 1970's ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has evolved into a useful technique for laboratories to detect explosives, chemical warfare agents, environment pollutants and, increasingly, for detecting drugs of abuse. Ephedrine is extracted directly from urine samples using SPME and the analyte on the fiber is heated by the IMS desorber unit and vaporized into the drift tube. The analytical procedure was optimized for fiber coating selection, extraction temperature, extraction time, sample pH, and analyte desorption temperature. The carryover effects, ion fragmentation characteristics, peak shapes, and drift times of ephedrine were also evaluated based on the direct interfacing of SPME to IMS. A limit of detection of 50 ng/mL of ephedrine in urine and a linear range of 3 orders of magnitude were obtained, showing that SPME-IMS compares well to other techniques for ephedrine and drug analysis presented in the literature.     

Characterization of volatile metabolites formed by molds on barley by mass and ion mobility spectrometry

The contamination of barley by molds on the field or in storage leads to the spoilage of grain and the production of mycotoxins, which causes major economic losses in malting facilities and breweries. Therefore, on‐site detection of hidden fungus contaminations in grain storages based on the detection of volatile marker compounds is of high interest. In this work, the volatile metabolites of 10 different fungus species are identified by gas chromatography (GC) combined with two complementary mass spectrometric methods, namely, electron impact (EI) and chemical ionization at atmospheric pressure (APCI)‐mass spectrometry (MS). The APCI source utilizes soft X‐radiation, which enables the selective protonation of the volatile metabolites largely without side reactions. Nearly 80 volatile or semivolatile compounds from different substance classes, namely, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, substituted aromatic compounds, alkenes, terpenes, oxidized terpenes, sesquiterpenes, and oxidized sesquiterpenes, could be identified. The profiles of volatile and semivolatile metabolites of the different fungus species are characteristic of them and allow their safe differentiation. The application of the same GC parameters and APCI source allows a simple method transfer from MS to ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), which permits on‐site analyses of grain stores. Characterization of IMS yields limits of detection very similar to those of APCI‐MS. Accordingly, more than 90% of the volatile metabolites found by APCI‐MS were also detected in IMS. In addition to different fungus genera, different species of one fungus genus could also be differentiated by GC‐IMS.