Expertise
- Understanding production, transfer, spread and fate of trace contamination (explosives, drugs, pharmaceuticals)
- Developing methods and systems for the direct analysis of materials on surfaces
- Development of novel ionisation techniques for mass spectrometric analysis
- Understanding secondary ionisation processes
- Developing techniques for the forensic speciation of materials of interest
- Quantification of precision, accuracy and uncertainty of analytical systems of measurement
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Organizational Affiliations
Highlights - Output
Journal article
by Simone Caroline Mathias, Marius Amerio-Cox, Toni Louise Jackson, David Douce, Ashley Sage, Peter Luke, Richard Sleeman, Carol Crean and Patrick Sears
Published 12/12/2023
Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 35, 1, 50 - 61
Ambient ionization (AI) is a rapidly growing field in mass spectrometry (MS). It allows for the direct analysis of samples without any sample preparation, making it a promising technique for the detection of explosives. Previous studies have shown that AI can be used to detect a variety of explosives, but the exact gas-phase reactions that occur during ionization are not fully understood. This is further complicated by differences in mass spectrometers and individual experimental set ups between researchers. This study investigated the gas-phase ion reactions of five different explosives using a variety of AI techniques coupled to a Waters QDa mass spectrometer to identify selective ions for explosive detection and identification based on the applied ambient ionization technique. The results showed that the choice of the ion source can have a significant impact on the number of ions observed. This can affect the sensitivity and selectivity of the data produced. The findings of this study provide new insights into the gas-phase ion reactions of explosives and could lead to the development of more sensitive and selective AI-based methods for their detection.