Flow injection of liquid samples to a mass spectrometer with ionization under vacuum conditions: a combined ion source for single-photon and electron impact ionization

Electrospray ionization (ESI), atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), and atmospheric pressure photo-ionization (APPI) are the most important techniques for the ionization of liquid samples. However, working under atmospheric pressure conditions, all these techniques involve some chemical rather than purely physical processes, and therefore, side reactions often yield to matrix-dependent ionization efficiencies. Here, a system is presented that combines both soft single-photon ionization (SPI) and hard 70 eV electron impact ionization (EI) of dissolved compounds under vacuum conditions. A quadrupole mass spectrometer was modified to enable direct EI, a technique developed by Cappiello et al. to obtain library-searchable EI mass spectra as well as soft SPI mass spectra of sample solutions. An electron beam-pumped rare gas excimer lamp working at 126 nm was used as well as a focusable vacuum UV light source for single-photon ionization. Both techniques, EI and SPI, were applied successfully for flow injection experiments providing library-matchable EI fragment mass spectra and soft SPI mass spectra, showing dominant signals for the molecular ion. Four model compounds were analyzed: hexadecane, propofol, chlorpropham, and eugenol, with detection limits in the picomolar range. This novel combination of EI and SPI promises great analytical benefits, thanks to the possibility of combining database alignment for EI data and molecular mass information provided by SPI. Possible applications for the presented ionization technology system are a matrix-effect-free detection and a rapid screening of different complex mixtures without time-consuming sample preparation or separation techniques (e.g., for analysis of reaction solutions in combinatorial chemistry) or a switchable hard (EI) and soft (SPI) MS method as detection step for liquid chromatography.