Dopants and gas modifiers in ion mobility spectrometry

Emilia Waraksa, Urszula Perycz, Jacek Namieśnik, Mika Sillanpää, Tomasz Dymerski, Marzena Wójtowicz, Jarosław Puton

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

59 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The ion mobility techniques, including the most commonly used drift-tube ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and differential mobility spectrometry (DMS), are used successfully for the detection of a wide range of organic compounds in the gas phase. In order to improve detection quality, admixtures are added to gas streams flowing through the detector. Dopants mostly prevent the ionization of interfering chemicals however, better detection may be also achieved by shifting the peaks in the drift-time spectra, enabling ionization of analytes with low proton affinities and, thus, facilitating photoionization. Fundamental information about ion-molecule reactions including the role of dopants is presented. The term 'gas modifiers' refers to substances that influence the ion transport by changing the mobility of ions without changing the chemistry of the ionization. The mechanism of the gas modifier's interaction with an analyte in ion separation in drift tube IMS and DMS is explained in this paper.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)237-249
Number of pages13
JournalTrAC - Trends in Analytical Chemistry
Volume82
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Alternative reactant ions
  • Detection of hazardous materials
  • Dopants
  • Gas modifiers
  • Ion mobility spectrometry
  • Ion-molecule reactions

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Spectroscopy

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