Online Aerosol Mass Spectrometry Combined with Soft Ionization Techniques:
Contributions to Understand Composition and Chemistry of Tropospheric
Aerosols
Thorsten Hoffmann, Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Johannes
Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Duesbergweg 10-14, 55128 Mainz
Standard methods for the analysis of environmental, biological or technical matrices typically involve collection of samples and delivery to the laboratory for analysis. This type of sampling severely limits both spatial and temporal sampling densities.
However, for the understanding and control of dynamic systems in areas such as industrial process analysis, medical or environmental research analytical techniques to monitor trace amounts of analytes with a high time resolution are required. Since mass spectrometry is arguably the most versatile of analytical methods, several recent developments aim for a direct investigation of the chemical composition of various matrices in real-time. Due to the technical, toxicological and climatic relevance of aerosol particles also several real-time analytical methodologies for particle analysis have been developed within the last few years. The commercially available systems have the disadvantage of showing a high degree of fragmentation, which restricts its usability for the characterization or organic analytes. In contrast, the use of chemical ionization, e.g. at atmospheric pressure, allows a molecular identification of the analytes, especially when it is combined with MS/MS-capable mass analyzers (e.g. ion traps). The potential of the technique for aerosol characterization will be exemplified in the field of tropospheric aerosol research.