A simple soft ionization approach for GC-MS assisted by capillary array

Abstract

Electron ionization (EI) is the most widely used ionization method in gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS). This method possesses a lot of advantages including versatility for various classes of volatile and semi volatile organic compounds, high sensitivity, structure informativity and reproducibility, production of database searchable mass spectra. On the other hand there are a number of compounds, which molecular ions are not stable enough to produce corresponding peaks in EI mass spectra, making it difficult to determine structures of compounds not presented in databases. A new approach allowing easy implementation of EI in a molecular beam formed by a capillary assembly is proposed for discussion in this communication. Primary experimental results achieved using this approach demonstrate its possibility to produce suitable for database search mass spectra with increased intensity of molecular ion peak.

Keywords: Electron ionization; GC-MS; Molecular beams; Soft ionization.