Low-temperature plasma ionization-mass spectrometry for the analysis of compounds in organic aerosol particles.

Low-temperature plasma ionization, a technique that causes minimal fragmentation during ionization, is investigated as an ionization technique for mass spectrometric detection of the compounds in ambient organic aerosols in real time. The experiments presented in this paper demonstrate that ions are generated from compounds in the aerosol particles. The utility of this technique for detection of both positive and negative ions from the pyrolysate of multiple natural polymers is presented. Ultimately, low-temperature plasma ionization is shown to be a promising ionization technique for detection of compounds in organic aerosols by mass spectrometry.