Poster Presentations
Day 1, June 10（Wed.） Room P (5F 501+502)
- 1P-37
Applicability of Ion Attachment as the First‑Choice Ionization Method for GC/MS in Analytical Facilities
(Hokkaido Univ.)
oYusuke Takata, Eri Fukushi
Ion attachment (IA) is one of the softest ionization techniques and is often described as “fragment-less.” It generates [M+Li]+ or [M+Na] + ions from gaseous samples by placing a simple Li or Na emitter in the ion source. In early stage, IA showed advantages in real-time analysis of unstable compounds and has therefore been applied to evolved gas analysis1). For decades, field ionization (FI) and field desorption (FD) have been central to our analytical services for a diverse range of low‑polarity compounds, including natural products and synthetic organic molecules. To confirm the molecular formulas required for structural analysis, we measured the accurate masses of the molecular ions. Although FI is a very soft ionization method, fragmentation can occur, particularly when branched alkyl groups are present. To compensate for the limitations of FI, we recently introduced IA and found that it is effective for a variety of chemical species, not only for compounds with branched alkyl groups. Almost all compounds produced strong [M+Li]+ ions, enabling accurate mass measurements to be readily performed using the internal standard supplied from the reservoir. With the Li emitter, nitrile and acetal compounds sometimes produced fragment ions, but they became fragment-less by switching to the Na emitter.