Atmospheric-pressure ionization studies and field dependence of ion mobilities of isomeric hydrocarbons using a miniature differential mobility spectrometer

The ionization pathways and ion mobility were determined for sets of structural isomeric and stereoisomeric non-polar hydrocarbons (saturated and unsaturated cyclic hydrocarbons and aromatic hydrocarbons) using a novel miniature differential mobility spectrometer with atmospheric-pressure photoionization (APPI) to assess how structural and stereochemical differences influence ion formation and ion mobility. The analytical results obtained using the differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) were compared with the reduced mobility values measured using conventional time-of-flight ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) with the same ionization technique.The majority of differences in DMS ion mobility spectra observed among isomeric cyclic hydrocarbons can be explained by the formation of different product ions. Comparable differences in ion formation were also observed using conventional IMS and by investigations using the coupling of ion mobility spectrometry with mass spectrometry (APPI-IMS-MS) and APPI-MS. Using DMS, isomeric aromatic hydrocarbons can in the majority of cases be distinguished by the different behavior of product ions in the strong asymmetric radio frequency (rf) electric field of the drift channel. The different peak position of product ions depending on the electric field amplitude permits the differentiation between most of the investigated isomeric aromatics with a different constitution; this stands in contrast to conventional IMS in which comparable reduced mobility values were detected for the isomeric aromatic compounds.     

Particle concentration measurement of virus samples using electrospray differential mobility analysis and quantitative amino acid analysis

Virus reference materials are needed to develop and calibrate detection devices and instruments. We used electrospray differential mobility analysis (ES-DMA) and quantitative amino acid analysis (AAA) to determine the particle concentration of three small model viruses (bacteriophages MS2, PP7, and ?X174). The biological activity, purity, and aggregation of the virus samples were measured using plaque assays, denaturing gel electrophoresis, and size-exclusion chromatography. ES-DMA was developed to count the virus particles using gold nanoparticles as internal standards. ES-DMA additionally provides quantitative measurement of the size and extent of aggregation in the virus samples. Quantitative AAA was also used to determine the mass of the viral proteins in the pure virus samples. The samples were hydrolyzed and the masses of the well-recovered amino acids were used to calculate the equivalent concentration of viral particles in the samples. The concentration of the virus samples determined by ES-DMA was in good agreement with the concentration predicted by AAA for these purified samples. The advantages and limitations of ES-DMA and AAA to characterize virus reference materials are discussed.     

Limits of separation of a multi-capillary column with mixtures of volatile organic compounds for a flame ionization detector and a differential mobility detector

The resolving power of a multi-capillary column (MCC) was evaluated using 14 mixtures of volatile organic compounds with known composition and complexity which was incremented stepwise up to 129 constituents. The number of constituents in these mixtures versus the number of components separated and detected with a flame ionization detector showed a proportional rise, with a decreasing slope, to 76 peaks after which a plateau was reached. This was improved 23.7% to 94 constituents, or 73% of all compounds in the mixture, after simplex optimization of carrier gas linear velocity, initial temperature and program rate. When the detection method was differential mobility spectrometry (DMS), additional selectivity was introduced through ion formation and separation. Fifty nine compounds were detected by DMS and 46 were separated by retention time; 13 were co-eluted and 7 of these were resolved by differential ion mobility (90% of all components ionized). A correlation of −0.412 between retention time for gas chromatography (GC) and differential mobility for DMS suggested a significant level of orthogonal character and the method of GC–DMS should not be seen as sequential only.     

Non-invasive monitoring of diabetes through analysis of the exhaled breath condensate (aerosol)

We show that exhaled breath condensate (EBC) contains glucose (≈ 0.01 mM for healthy subjects), in contrast to previous works reporting minimal glucose content in EBC. The evaluated breath condensate glucose levels correlate positively with blood glucose levels, thus offering the prospect of a non-invasive approach to the monitoring of diabetes.     

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.     

Differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) reveals the elevation of urinary acetylcarnitine in non‐human primates (NHPs) exposed to radiation

Acetylcarnitine has been identified as one of several urinary biomarkers indicative of radiation exposure in adult rhesus macaque monkeys (non‐human primates, NHPs). Previous work has demonstrated an up‐regulated dose‐response profile in a balanced male/female NHP cohort. 1 As a contribution toward the development of metabolomics‐based radiation biodosimetry in human populations and other applications of acetylcarnitine screening, we have developed a quantitative, high‐throughput method for the analysis of acetylcarnitine. We employed the Sciex SelexIon DMS‐MS/MS QTRAP 5500 platform coupled to flow injection analysis (FIA), thereby allowing for fast analysis times of less than 0.5 minutes per injection with no chromatographic separation. Ethyl acetate is used as a DMS modifier to reduce matrix chemical background. We have measured NHP urinary acetylcarnitine from the male cohorts that were exposed to the following radiation levels: control, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 10 Gy. Biological variability, along with calibration accuracy of the FIA‐DMS‐MS/MS method, indicates LOQ of 20 μM, with observed biological levels on the order of 600 μM and control levels near 10 μM. There is an apparent onset of intensified response in the transition from 6 to 10 Gy. The results demonstrate that FIA‐DMS‐MS/MS is a rapid, quantitative technique that can be utilized for the analysis of urinary biomarker levels for radiation biodosimetry.     

Determination of breath alcohol using a differential-type amperometric biosensor based on alcohol dehydrogenase

A differential-type amperometric biosensor based on conventional thick-film technology has been developed for breath alcohol measurement. The amperometric breath alcohol biosensor utilizes the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺) cofactor which produce reduced NADH as a product of the oxidation of alcohol. The biosensor was designed in a differential format consisting of a common Ag/AgCl reference electrode, an active working electrode containing the ADH, and the inactive working electrode containing only bovine serum albumin instead of the ADH. The differential signal between the active working electrode and the inactive working electrode minimized the interference from a large number of oxidizable species present in a person's breath. Prior to the amperometric measurement the biosensor was hydrated simply by dipping it into a phosphate buffer solution at pH 7.4. The NADH produced from the enzymatic reaction was oxidized at the working electrode biased at a potential of 470 mV vs. an on-board Ag/AgCl reference electrode. The biosensor can measure a person's breath alcohol over the concentration range 20–800 ppm routinely required in a test of drunken driving.     

Analysis of a series of chlorogenic acid isomers using differential ion mobility and tandem mass spectrometry

Chlorogenic acids are among the most abundant phenolics found in the human diet. Of these, the mono-caffeoylquinic acids are the predominant phenolics found in fruits, such as apples and pears, and products derived from them. In this research, a comprehensive study of the electrospray ionization (ESI) tandem mass spectrometric (MS/MS) dissociation behavior of the three most common mono-caffeoylquinic acids, namely 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid (5-CQA), 3-O-caffeoylquinic acid (3-CQA) and 4-O-caffeoylquinic acid (4-CQA), were determined using both positive and negative ionization. All proposed structures of the observed product ions were confirmed with second-generation MS³ experiments. Similarities and differences between the dissociation pathways in the positive and negative ion modes are discussed, confirming the proposed structures and the established MS/MS fingerprints. MS/MS dissociation was primarily driven via the cleavage of the ester bond linking the quinic acid moiety to the caffeic acid moiety within tested molecules. Despite being structural isomers with the same m/z values and dissociation behaviors, the MS/MS data in the negative ion mode was able to differentiate the three isomers based on ion intensity for the major product ions, observed at m/z 191, 179 and 173. This differentiation was consistent among various MS instruments. In addition, ESI coupled with high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry (ESI-FAIMS-MS) was employed for the separation of these compounds for the first time. By combining MS/MS data and differential ion mobility, a method for the separation and identification of mono-caffeoylquinic in apple/pear juice samples was developed with a run time of less than 1 min. It is envisaged that this methodology could be used to identify pure juices based on their chlorogenic acid profile (i.e., metabolomics), and could also be used to detect juice-to-juice adulteration (e.g., apple juice addition to pear juice).     

Parallel differential mobility analysis for electrostatic characterization and manipulation of nanoparticles and viruses

The electrophoretic mobility of charged, airborne nanoparticles (NPs) or macromolecules and their specific complexes opens new avenues for their analysis and handling. The newly developed parallel differential mobility analyzer in combination with an electrostatic particle sampler enables not only the characterization of bio-NPs, but even their sampling while preserving their bioactivity (e.g., the enzyme activity of galactosidase). Precondition for the applicability of this technique is a well-defined charging status of the NPs in question. This charge conditioning can be achieved by means of a radioactive source, Po-210, even if the yield in terms of charged particles is low for sub-20-nm particles and the aging of the source influences the size spectra measured. Nevertheless, this technique enables size-defined sampling and enrichment, combined with real-time measurement of the size of both NPs and viruses. Furthermore, it allows determination of the number of attached biospecific antibodies, thereby providing information about the surface coverage of viruses by antibodies.     

Optimization of a glancing angle for simultaneous trace elemental analysis by using a portable total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometer

By using a portable total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometer with a 1 W X-ray tube, a specimen containing nanograms of Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, and Ni is measured at several glancing angles of incident X-rays. Continuum X-rays are used as the excitation source. The intensities of the spectral background which degrades sensitivity to trace elements are decreased with a decrease of the glancing angle, and all these elements are detected at the glancing angle of 0.13° smaller than the critical angle for total reflection of the incident X-rays (0.20°). An optimum glancing angle for simultaneously detecting these trace elements is around 0.13°, and detection limits at 0.13° are sub-nanograms to ten nanograms.     

Two-dimensional wavelet analysis based classification of gas chromatogram differential mobility spectrometry signals

This study introduces two-dimensional (2-D) wavelet analysis to the classification of gas chromatogram differential mobility spectrometry (GC/DMS) data which are composed of retention time, compensation voltage, and corresponding intensities. One reported method to process such large data sets is to convert 2-D signals to 1-D signals by summing intensities either across retention time or compensation voltage, but it can lose important signal information in one data dimension. A 2-D wavelet analysis approach keeps the 2-D structure of original signals, while significantly reducing data size. We applied this feature extraction method to 2-D GC/DMS signals measured from control and disordered fruit and then employed two typical classification algorithms to testify the effects of the resultant features on chemical pattern recognition. Yielding a 93.3% accuracy of separating data from control and disordered fruit samples, 2-D wavelet analysis not only proves its feasibility to extract feature from original 2-D signals but also shows its superiority over the conventional feature extraction methods including converting 2-D to 1-D and selecting distinguishable pixels from training set. Furthermore, this process does not require coupling with specific pattern recognition methods, which may help ensure wide applications of this method to 2-D spectrometry data.     

Effects of carbon dioxide in breath gas on proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) measurements

PTR-MS is becoming a common method for the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in human breath. Breath gas contains substantial and, particularly for bag samples, highly variable concentrations of water vapour (up to 6.3%) and carbon dioxide (up to 6.5%). The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of carbon dioxide on PTR-MS measurements; such effects can be expected in view of the already well known effects of water vapour. Carbon dioxide caused an increase of the pressure in the PTR-MS drift tube (1% increase for 5% CO₂), and this effect was used to assess the CO₂ concentration of breath gas samples along the way with the analysis of VOCs. Carbon dioxide enhanced the concentration ratio of protonated water clusters (H₃O⁺H₂O) to protonated water (H₃O⁺) in the drift tube. Using the observed increase, being 60% for 5% CO₂, it is estimated that the mobility of water cluster ions in pure CO₂ is almost 65% lower than in air. Carbon dioxide had a significant effect on the mass spectra of the main breath gas components methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, acetone, and isoprene. Carbon dioxide caused a small increase (<10% for 5% CO₂) of the normalised main signals for the non-fragmenting molecules methanol and acetone. The increase can be much higher for the fragmenting VOCs (ethanol, propanol, and isoprene) and was, for 5% CO₂, up to 60% for ethanol. This effect of CO₂ on fragment patterns is mainly a consequence of the increased abundance of protonated water clusters, which undergo softer reactions with VOCs than the hydronium ions. Breath gas samples stored in Teflon bags lost 80% of CO₂ during 3 days, the decrease of VOC signals, however, is mainly attributed to decreasing VOC concentrations and to the loss of humidity from the bags.     

Breath analysis by optical fiber sensor for the determination of exhaled organic compounds with a view to diagnostics

Breath analysis constitutes a promising tool in clinical and analytical fields due to its high potential for non-invasive diagnostics of metabolic disorders and monitoring of disease status. An optical fiber (OF) sensor has been developed for determination of volatile organic compounds (ethane, pentane, heptane, octane, decane, benzene, toluene and styrene) in human breath for clinical diagnosis.The analytical system developed showed a high performance for breath analysis, inferred for the analytical signal intensity and stability, linear range, and detection limits ranging from 0.8 pmol L⁻¹, for heptane, and to 9.5 pmol L⁻¹, for decane. The OF sensor also showed advantageous features of near real-time response and low instrumentation costs, besides showing an analytical performance equivalent to the breath analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), used as the reference method.     

Determination of N epsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine in exhaled breath condensate using isotope dilution liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

In order to identify new biomarkers for pulmonary diseases in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) it was the aim of this study to develop an analytical method for the identification and quantification of N epsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML) in EBC. As detection by liquid chromatography with positive electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS) offers the advantage of structurally related detection with the necessary specificity required for the identification of a substance, it was the method chosen for the determination of the non-volatile compound. Specific mass transitions and comparison of retention times with standards under given conditions were used for the unequivocal identification of CML in EBC of healthy subjects. Synthesis of isotopically labelled CML was performed and used as an internal standard for an accurate determination. It was possible to identify the advanced glycation end-product CML in 8 out of 10 healthy subjects. The concentration range determined in the quantifiable examined samples ranged between 35 and 110 pg/mL. EBC samples from 11 patients with different diseases such as diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were also measured. In one patient with pneumonia a concentration of 1509 pg CML/mL EBC could be detected. This is the first time that CML has been identified and determined in EBC. The developed LC/ESI-MS/MS method could be used to address the utility of CML as a biomarker in pulmonary diseases.     

The effects of flow type on aptamer capture in differential mobility cytometry cell separations

In this work, differential mobility cytometry (DMC) was used to monitor cell separation based on aptamer recognition for target cells. In this device, open-tubular capillaries coated with Sgc8 aptamers were used as affinity chromatography columns for separation. After cells were injected into the columns, oscillating flow was generated to allow for long-term cell adhesion studies. This process was monitored by optical microscopy, and differential imaging was used to analyze the cells as they adhered to the affinity surface. We investigated the capture time, capture efficiency, purity of target and control cells, as well as the reusability of the affinity columns. Capture time for both CCRF-CEM cells and Jurkat T cells was 0.4 ± 0.2 s, which demonstrated the high separation affinity between aptamers and target cells. The capture efficiency for CCRF-CEM cells was 95% and purity was 99% in a cell mixture. With the advantage of both high cell capture efficiency and purity, DMC combined with aptamer-based separation emerges as a powerful tool for rare cell enrichment. In addition, aptamer-based DMC channels were found to be more robust than antibody based channels with respect to reuse of the separation device.     

Influence of weakly bound adduct ions on breath trace gas analysis by selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS)

This paper describes how weakly bound adduct ions form when the precursor ions used in selected ion flow mass spectrometry, SIFT-MS, analyses, viz. H₃O⁺, NO⁺ and O₂⁺, associate with the major components of air and exhaled breath, N₂, O₂ and CO₂. These adduct ions, which include H₃O⁺N₂, H₃O⁺CO₂, NO⁺CO₂, O₂⁺O₂ and O₂⁺CO₂, are clearly seen when dry air containing 5% CO₂ (typical of that in exhaled breath) is analysed using SIFT-MS. These adduct ions must not be misinterpreted as characteristic product ions of trace gases; if so, serious analytical errors can result. However, when exhaled breath is analysed these adduct ions are partly removed by ligand switching reactions with the abundant water molecules and the problems they represent are alleviated. But the small fractions of the adduct ions that remain in the SIFT-MS spectra, and especially when they are isobaric with genuine characteristic product ion of breath trace gases, can result in erroneous quantifications; such is the case for H₃O⁺N₂ interfering with breath ethanol analysis and H₃O⁺CO₂ with breath acetaldehyde analysis. However, these difficulties can be overcome when the isobaric adduct ions are properly recognised and excluded from the analyses; then these two important compounds can be properly quantified in breath. The presence of O₂⁺CO₂ in the product ion spectra interferes with the analysis of CS₂ present at low levels in exhaled breath. It is likely that similar problems will occur as other trace compounds are detected in exhaled breath when consideration will have to be given to the possibility of overlapping between their characteristic product ions and ions produced by hitherto unknown reactions. Similar problems are evident in other systems; for example, H₃O⁺CH₄ adduct ions are observed in both SIFT-MS analyses of methane rich mixtures like biologically generated waste gases and in model planetary atmospheres.     

Comparison of differential mobility spectrometry and mass spectrometry for gas chromatographic detection of ignitable liquids from fire debris using projected difference resolution

The significance of forensic arson analysis accelerates the applications of new technologies in this area. Based on the previously reported application of differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) as a detection method for gas chromatography (GC) in arson analysis, the performances of DMS and mass spectrometry (MS) were compared using a novel chemometric tool, projected difference resolutions (PDRs). The PDR results show that one-way mass spectra data exhibit higher resolution than DMS data, while total ion chromatograms from GC–DMS show higher resolution than that from GC/MS for differentiating seven kinds of ignitable liquids. Combining the information from both chromatography and spectra, two-way data always have higher resolution than one-way data for these two detection methods, and GC/MS would exhibit better performance than GC–DMS according to the minimum resolution value. To verify the PDR results, a fuzzy rule-building expert system was applied for classifying these seven kinds of ignitable liquids from fire debris based on GC–DMS and GC/MS data, respectively. The prediction accuracies were consistent with PDR results, which proved that PDR is a powerful tool in comparing the performances of different analysis methods for pattern recognition. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Quantitative determination of n-alkanethiols in air and in a blended gas mixture of methane with air by gas chromatography/differential mobility spectrometry

Mixtures of n-alkanethiols, in solution with equi-molar amounts from 0.5 to 360 ng per compound, were determined using gas chromatography (GC) with a differential mobility spectrometer, operated with a flow of air at ambient pressure, as the GC detector. A homologous series of n-alkanethiols with carbon number from two to six showed baseline resolution in the GC separation and positive and negative ion chromatograms were produced simultaneously for the alkanethiols. Differential mobility spectra showed compensation voltages characteristic of each alkanethiol and plots of ion intensity, retention time, and compensation voltage yield contour plots illustrating the second dimension of analytical selectivity provided by the detector. Another yet undeveloped dimension of analytical information was found in the dependence of mobility coefficients on electric field. Mass-analysis of ions from thiols showed a hydrogen abstracted ion, protonated monomers, and proton bound dimers. Linear ranges were narrow and the minimum detectable limits were ~1 ng. Response in positive polarity provided a ten-fold improvement in detection limits though spectra were more complex than for negative ions. In a methane-rich air atmosphere, intended to simulate ambient air or the detection of leaks from natural gas pipelines, the response to thiols with negative ions was not degraded by the methane up to 50% v/v, the highest level tested.     

Detection and Identification of VOCs Using Differential Ion Mobility Spectrometry (DMS)

The article presents a technique of differential ion mobility spectrometry (DMS) applicable to the detection and identification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from such categories as n-alkanes, alcohols, acetate esters, ketones, botulinum toxin, BTX, and fluoro- and chloro-organic compounds. A possibility of mixture identification using only the DMS spectrometer is analyzed, and several examples are published for the first time. An analysis of different compounds and their mechanisms of fragmentation, influence on effective ion temperature, and high electric field intensity is discussed.