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Flash Desorption/Mass Spectrometry for the Analysis of Less- and Nonvolatile Samples Using a Linearly Driven Heated Metal Filament

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

In this paper, the important issue of the desorption of less- and nonvolatile compounds with minimal sample decomposition in ambient mass spectrometry is approached using ambient flash desorption mass spectrometry. The preheated stainless steel filament was driven down and up along the vertical axis in 0.3 s. At the lowest position, it touched the surface of the sample with an invasion depth of 0.1 mm in 50 ms (flash heating) and was removed from the surface (fast cooling). The heating rate corresponds to ~104 °C/s at the filament temperature of 500 °C. The desorbed gaseous molecules were ionized by using a dielectric barrier discharge ion source, and the produced ions were detected by a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer. Less-volatile samples, such as pharmaceutical tablets, narcotics, explosives, and C60 gave molecular and protonated molecule ions as major ions with thermal decomposition minimally suppressed. For synthetic polymers (PMMA, PLA, and PS), the mass spectra reflected their backbone structures because of the suppression of the sequential thermal decompositions of the primary products. The present technique appears to be suitable for high-throughput qualitative analyses of many types of solid samples in the range from a few ng to 10 μg with minimal sample consumption. Some contribution from tribodesorption in addition to thermal desorption was suggested for the desorption processes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge support for this work by the Japanese Science and Technology Agency (JST).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clean Energy Research Center, University of Yamanashi, Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan

    Dilshadbek T. Usmanov & Kenzo Hiraoka

  2. Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi, Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan

    Satoshi Ninomiya

  3. Institute of Ion-Plasma and Laser Technology, Akademgorodok, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

    Dilshadbek T. Usmanov

Authors
  1. Dilshadbek T. Usmanov
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  2. Satoshi Ninomiya
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  3. Kenzo Hiraoka
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Correspondence to Kenzo Hiraoka.

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Usmanov, D.T., Ninomiya, S. & Hiraoka, K. Flash Desorption/Mass Spectrometry for the Analysis of Less- and Nonvolatile Samples Using a Linearly Driven Heated Metal Filament. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 24, 1727–1735 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13361-013-0711-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13361-013-0711-0

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