Applications of electrospray laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry for document examination

We have employed electrospray laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (ELDI‐MS) to rapidly characterize certain classes of compounds – the inks within the characters made by inks and inkjet printer on regular paper and the chemical compounds within thermal papers. This ELDI‐MS approach allowed the ink and paper samples to be distinguished in terms of their chemical compositions. Sample pretreatment was unnecessary and the documents were practically undamaged after examination. The ink chemicals on the documents were desorbed through laser irradiation (sampling spot area: <100 µm²); the desorbed molecules then entered an electrospray plume – prepared from an acidic methanol/water solution (50%) – where they became ionized through fusion or ion‐molecule reactions with the charged solvent species and droplets in the plume. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.