Mass spectrometry (MS) is used across a wide range of applications involving analytical chemistry. Various MS techniques, often coupled with liquid chromatography (LC), allow for detection of various chemical analytes, from drug metabolites, pesticides, food adulterants, and natural product extracts, among others.

The Need
Recent developments have transformed MS into an all-purpose technique for in-situ and real-time chemical analysis, but quantitative MS is beset with challenges posed by ion suppression effects due to the presence of endogenous or exogenous matrices. The proposed technology fundamentally advances analytical MS by developing methods that combine ion generation and reaction into a single step. Selected reactions enable isomer differentiation without modifying the existing MS instrument.

The Technology
The proposed technology is a co-axial contained electrospray ionization platform that can be operated in multiple modes to tune droplet activity for various analytes (proteins, lipids, fatty acids, and organic compounds). The apparatus is also capable of droplet-plasma fusion that can be activated as part of the electrospray process, which allows both polar and non-polar analytes to be effectively detected.

Commercial Applications
This new platform is applicable to a wider range of applications that utilize MS and LC-MS. It is also relevant to electrospray ionization, a technique used in MS, to ionize non-volatile solutions for sensitive direct detection.

Benefits/Advantages
The platform accelerates reaction rates for rapid and efficient chemical detection. This new platform can be coupled to any type of LC to allow online modification of compounds eluding from the LC column before entering the mass spectrometer. Additionally, no solution-phase analyte modification is needed, eliminating what is often a long reaction time. No dedicated reactor is needed, and the online droplet reaction occurring in the contained-ESI source can be turned off and on, making it highly versatile.

Patents
A PCT patent application has been filed.