UV photoionization (UV-PI) is a promising non-radioactive ionization method for ion mobility spectrometry (IMS). It could work at either direct photoionization mode or chemical ionization mode by adding photoionizable dopants, and thus its applications extend to a wide range of compound classes. This work is to present a comprehensive review on the development of UV-PI-IMS. It focuses on UV-PI's capabilities and how to use them fully. A summary discussion of the ionization processes in UV-PI would be presented first for understanding the fundamentals of UV-PI-IMS. Followed by descriptions of the technical configurations of UV-PI source in IMS. Improvements in the design of UV-PI source for achieving optimum results will be presented with references to examples. Further, a broad range of applications, including environmental contaminants analysis, trace explosives and chemical warfare agents detection, food safety and quality analysis, and clinical diagnosis, would be presented to demonstrated the analytical performance of UV-PI-IMS. In the conclusion, perspectives on areas of UV-PI technique which have the potential to be improved would be reasonably presented.
Keywords: Clinical diagnosis; Environmental contaminants; Food safety and quality; Ion mobility spectrometry; National defense; UV photoionization.
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