TY - JOUR A1 - You, Yi A1 - Song, L. A1 - Young, M.D. A1 - van der Wielen, M. A1 - Evans-Nguyen, T. A1 - Riedel, Jens A1 - Shelley, J.T. T1 - Unsupervised Reconstruction of Analyte-Specific Mass Spectra Based on Time-Domain Morphology with a Modified Cross-Correlation Approach N2 - Concomitant species that appear at the same or very similar times in a mass-spectral analysis can clutter a spectrum because of the coexistence of many analyte-related ions (e.g., molecular ions, adducts, fragments). One method to extract ions stemming from the same origin is to exploit the chemical information encoded in the time domain, where the individual temporal appearances inside the complex structures of chronograms or chromatograms differ with respect to analytes. By grouping ions with very similar or identical time-domain structures, single-component mass spectra can be reconstructed, which are much easier to interpret and are library-searchable. While many other approaches address similar objectives through the Pearson’s correlation coefficient, we explore an alternative method based on a modified cross-correlation algorithm to compute a metric that describes the degree of similarity between features inside any two ion chronograms. Furthermore, an automatic workflow was devised to be capable of categorizing thousands of mass-spectral peaks into different groups within a few seconds. This approach was tested with direct mass-spectrometric analyses as well as with a simple, fast, and poorly resolved LC–MS analysis. Single-component mass spectra were extracted in both cases and were identified based on accurate mass and a mass-spectral library search. KW - Mass-Spectral Reconstruction KW - Mass Spectrometry KW - Correlation PY - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.0c04396 VL - 93 IS - 12 SP - 5009 EP - 5014 PB - ACS AN - OPUS4-52467 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Song, L. A1 - You, Yi A1 - Perdomo, R. A1 - Evans-Nguyen, T. T1 - Inexpensive Ultrasonic Nebulization Coupled with Direct Current Corona Discharge Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Liquid Samples and Its Fundamental Investigations N2 - The concept of direct mass-spectrometric analysis, especially exploited by ambient desorption/ionization (ADI) methods, provides numerous means for convenient sample analysis. While many simple and versatile ionization sources have been developed, challenges lay in achieving efficient sample introduction. In previous work, a sample introduction method employing direct current corona discharge (CD) coupled to a surface acoustic wave nebulization (SAWN) device enhanced sampling performance for both polar and nonpolar analytes by up to 4 orders of magnitude. In fact, the SAWN-CD method generated a multiply charged peptide ion signal comparable to that of conventional ESI. Unfortunately, the high cost of the SAWN devices themselves limits their accessibility. Herein, we report on an analogous implementation of CD with an inexpensive ultrasonic nebulizer (USN) on the basis of a commercial room humidifier demonstrating equivalent exemplary performance. We subsequently compare the two methods of SAWN-CD and USN-CD in a screening application of milk for the detection of two antibiotic drugs, ciprofloxacin and ampicillin. Finally, we further investigate the relative softness of these CD-coupled acoustic nebulization methods in comparison to that of ESI using a survival yield study of the thermometer ion nitrobenzylpyridinium. KW - Rapid Analysis KW - Ultrasonic Nebulization KW - Corona Discharge PY - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.0c00524 VL - 92 IS - 16 SP - 11072 PB - ACS Publication AN - OPUS4-51225 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Song, L. A1 - You, Yi A1 - Evans-Nguyen, T. T1 - Surface acoustic wave nebulization with atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization for enhanced ion signal N2 - Many ambient desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (ADI-MS) techniques rely critically on thermal desorption. Meanwhile, the analyte classes that are successfully studied by any particular ADI-MS methods are strongly dependent on the type of ionization source. Generally, spraybased ionization sources favor polar analytes, whereas plasmabased sources can be used for more hydrophobic analytes and are more suitable for molecules with small molar masses. In the present work, classic atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization (APCI) is used. To provide improved desorption performance for APCI, a surface acoustic wave nebulization (SAWN) device was implemented to convert liquid analytes into fine airborne particles. Compared to conventional SAWN that is used solely as an ionization source for liquid samples, the coupling of SAWN and APCI significantly improves ion signal by up to 4 orders of magnitude, reaching comparable ion abundances to those of electrospray ionization (ESI). Additionally, this coupling also extends the applicable mass range of an APCI source, conventionally known for the ionization of small molecules <500 Da. Herein, we discuss cursory evidence of this applicability to a variety of analytes including both polar and nonpolar small molecules and novel peptides that mimic biomolecules upward of 1000 Da. Observed species are similar to ESI-derived ions including doubly charged analyte ions despite presumably different charging mechanisms. SAWN−APCI coupling may thus involve more nuanced ionization pathways in comparison to other ADI approaches. KW - Nebulization KW - Ionization KW - Atomspheric-Pressure KW - Acoustic PY - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.8b03927 SN - 0003-2700 SN - 1520-6882 VL - 91 IS - 1 SP - 912 EP - 918 PB - American Chemical Society AN - OPUS4-47463 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -