TY - JOUR A1 - Bierstedt, Andreas A1 - Riedel, Jens T1 - Airborne laser-spark for ambient desorption/ionisation N2 - A novel direct sampling ionisation scheme for ambient mass spectrometry is presented. Desorption and ionisation are achieved by a quasi-continuous laser induced plasma in air. Since there are no solid or liquid electrodes involved the ion source does not suffer from chemical interferences or fatigue originating from erosive burning or from electrode consumption. The overall plasma maintains electro-neutrality, minimising charge effects and accompanying long term drift of the charged particles trajectories. In the airborne plasma approach the ambient air not only serves as the plasma medium but at the same time also slows down the nascent ions via collisional cooling. Ionisation of the analyte molecules does not occur in the plasma itself but is induced by interaction with nascent ionic fragments, electrons and/or far ultraviolet photons in the plasma vicinity. At each individual air-spark an audible shockwave is formed, providing new reactive species, which expands concentrically and, thus, prevents direct contact of the analyte with the hot region inside the plasma itself. As a consequence the interaction volume between plasma and analyte does not exceed the threshold temperature for thermal dissociation or fragmentation. Experimentally this indirect ionisation scheme is demonstrated to be widely unspecific to the chemical nature of the analyte and to hardly result in any fragmentation of the studied molecules. A vast ensemble of different test analytes including polar and non-polar hydrocarbons, sugars, low mass active ingredients of pharmaceuticals as well as natural biomolecules in food samples directly out of their complex matrices could be shown to yield easily accessible yet meaningful spectra. Since the plasma medium is humid air, the chemical reaction mechanism of the ionisation is likely to be similar to other ambient ionisation techniques. N2 - Wir stellen hier eine neue Ionisationsmethode für die Umgebungsionisation (ambient ionisation) vor. Sowohl die Desorption als auch die Ionisation erfolgen hierbei durch ein laserbetriebenes Luftplasma. Die Abwesenheit fester oder flüssiger Elektroden hat zur Folge, dass die Methode weder unter chemischen Interferenzen noch unter Verschleiß durch Korrosionsbrand oder abgetragenes Elektrodenmaterial leidet. Insgesamt betrachtet herrscht in dem Plasma Elektroneutralität, wodurch Aufladungseffekte minimiert werden, die andernfalls zu einer langfristigenÄderung der Flugbahnen von Ionen während der Experimente führen kann. In dem Ansatz eine freischwebende Luftentladung bei Atmosphärendruck zu verwenden agiert die Luft nicht nur als Plasmamedium sondert dient zusätzlich als Badgas für die stoßinduzierte Kühlung der entstehenden Ionen. Die Ionisierung der Analytmoleküle erfolgt nicht unmittelbar im Plasma sondern in dessen direkter Umgebung durch Wechselwirkung mit freigesetzten ionischen Luftspezies, freien Elektronen oder Photonen im kurzwelligen ultravioletten Bereich. Jede Laserentladung erzeugt eine hörbare Stoßwelle, in welcher neu produzierte reaktive Spezies freigesetzt werden, welche sich konzentrisch ausbreiten, so dass eine Diffusion der Analytmoleküle ins heiße Innere des Plasmas verhindert wird. Daraus folgt, dass im Interaktionsvolumen zwischen Plasma und Analyt der Temperaturgrenzwert für eine thermische Dissoziation oder Fragmentierung der Moleküle nicht überschritten wird. Experimentell konnte belegt werden, dass das vorgestellte Ionisierungsschema sehr unselektiv bezüglich der chemischen Analytklasse ist und kaum Fragmentierungsprodukte beobachtet werden können. Messungen einer breitgefächerten Auswahl unterschiedlicher Testsubstanzen, wie beispielsweise polarer und unpolarer Kohlenwasserstoffe, Zuckern, niedermolekularer pharmazeutischer Wirkstoffe, sowie natürlicher Biomoleküle in Lebensmittelproben unmittelbar aus ihren komplexen Matrizes, führten zu aussagekräftigen Massenspektren. Zumal das Lasermedium feuchte Luft ist, scheint der Reaktionsmechanismus dem anderer Atmosphärendruckionisierungsmethoden zuähneln. KW - Laser-spark KW - Laser-induced plasma KW - DPSS laser KW - High repetition rate KW - Ambient mass spectrometry KW - Time-of-flight mass spectrometry KW - Ionisation PY - 2016 DO - https://doi.org/10.1255/ejms.1417 SN - 1469-0667 VL - 22 IS - 3 SP - 105 EP - 114 PB - IM Publications LLP CY - Chichester, UK AN - OPUS4-37286 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bierstedt, Andreas A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Riedel, Jens T1 - Confinement and enhancement of an airborne atmospheric laser-induced plasma using an ultrasonic acoustic resonator N2 - Optical elemental analysis in the gas phase typically relies on electrically driven plasmas. As an alternative approach, laser-induced plasmas (LIPs) have been suggested but have so far been only scarcely used. Here, a novel signal enhancement strategy for laser-based airborne plasma optical Emission spectroscopy for gas phase analytics is presented. In contrast to an electrically driven plasma, in the laser-induced analogue dynamic matter transport equilibrium builds up. The latter results in a rarefied density regime in the plasma core itself, surrounded by an area of compressed matter. The central rarefaction leads to a decrease in plasma intensity and analyte number density, both of which are detrimental for analytical purposes. Since the repetitive ignition of LIPs is a transient process, a restoration of the former gaseous medium by other dynamically equilibrated diffusion processes would be favourable. The presented combination of an airborne LIP and an ultrasonic acoustic resonator yields a fourfold signal enhancement while the Background contribution of ubiquitous air is at the same time effectively suppressed. Since the entire enhancement effect occurs without contact, no additional sources for abrasive sample contamination are introduced. KW - DPSS laser KW - Laser-induced plasma KW - High repetition rate KW - Ultrasonic acoustic resonator KW - Optical emission spectroscopy PY - 2018 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/C7JA00297A SN - 0267-9477 SN - 1364-5544 VL - 33 IS - 1 SP - 135 EP - 140 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - London AN - OPUS4-43619 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bierstedt, Andreas A1 - Stindt, Arne A1 - Warschat, Carsten A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Riedel, Jens T1 - High repetition rate atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization in combination with liquid matrices N2 - One major drawback of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) is still the relatively poor pulse-to-pulse reproducibility of the signal intensity. This problem, caused by insufficient homogeneity in the matrix/analyte co-crystallization, is usually circumvented by averaging the detected ion intensity over several shots. However, during the consecutive laser pulses, the applied matrix gets depleted and only a number of subsequent experiments can be done on the same sample spot. In order to achieve the desired long-term stability in combination with a sufficient pulse-to-pulse reproducibility, recently liquid MALDI matrices have been introduced. This contribution demonstrates the promising combination of liquid matrices with high repetition rate lasers for atmospheric pressure MALDI (AP-MALDI). To demonstrate the robustness of the new approach, two different kinds of liquid matrices were used in combination with both a typical flashlamp pumped 15 Hz laser and a diode pumped solid state laser operated at 5 kHz. The latter showed a stable ion signal over more than 3,500,000 consecutive laser pulses. KW - AP-MALDI KW - Liquid matrix KW - High repetition rate KW - Ionic liquid KW - DPSS laser PY - 2014 DO - https://doi.org/10.1255/ejms.1292 SN - 1469-0667 SN - 1356-1049 SN - 1365-0718 VL - 20 IS - 5 SP - 367 EP - 374 PB - IM Publications CY - Chichester AN - OPUS4-32510 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -