A 3-in-1 Hand-Held Ambient Mass Spectrometry Interface for Identification and 2D Localization of Chemicals on Surfaces

Abstract

Desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), easy ambient sonic-spray ionization (EASI) and low-temperature plasma (LTP) ionization are powerful ambient ionization techniques for mass spectrometry. However, every single method has its limitation in terms of polarity and molecular weight of analyte molecules. After the miniaturization of every possible component of the different ion sources, we finally were able to embed two emitters and an ion transfer tubing into a small, hand-held device. The pen-like interface is connected to the mass spectrometer and a separate control unit via a bundle of flexible tubing and cables. The novel device allows the user to ionize an extended range of chemicals by simple switching between DESI, voltage-free EASI, or LTP ionization as well as to freely move the interface over a surface of interest. A mini camera, which is mounted on the tip of the pen, magnifies the desorption area and enables a simple positioning of the pen. The interface was successfully tested using different types of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and real life samples. Moreover, the combination of optical data from the camera module and chemical data obtained by mass analysis facilitates a novel type of imaging mass spectrometry, which we name “interactive mass spectrometry imaging (IMSI)”.

Plasma‐based ambient mass spectrometry: Recent progress and applications

“…Many efforts have also been devoted to develop field‐deployable, miniaturized AMS by taking the advantages of LTP techniques (Chen, Chen, et al, 2015; Hendricks et al, 2014). In a newly designed hand‐held AMS interface, the researchers have successfully integrated three ionization techniques, DESI, EASI, and LTP, into one pen‐like small device (Meisenbichler et al, 2020). Besides, a mini camera module is mounted on the tip of the pen‐like device, allowing for simultaneous optical imaging and mass spectrometric analysis of the sample surface.…”

No skin off your back: the sampling and extraction of sebum for metabolomics

“…Both AIMS approaches allow a high sample throughput (≤ 5 s from collection to data generation (Cho et al, 2021 ; Zhao et al, 2008 ) but do not allow molecular separation prior to detection. Considering the successes of AIMS for biological skin analyses in forensic science (Justes et al, 2007 ; Zhao et al, 2008 ), drug development (Cho et al, 2022 ; Katona et al, 2011 ), and cosmetic science (Motoyama & Kihara 2017 ), as well as continuous developments regarding probes (Fatou et al, 2018 ; Meisenbichler et al, 2020 ; Shamraeva et al, 2022 ) and portable mass spectrometers (Burns et al, 2022 ; Hendricks et al, 2014 ; Li et al, 2014 ; Mulligan et al, 2006 ), this is an exciting area to watch. For more information, the following reviews are recommended (Feider et al, 2019 ; Kuo et al, 2020 ).…”

Introductory Chapter: A Tool for Aided Advanced Diagnostics and Deep View into Biological Sample

“…Another issue is the miniaturization of MS and LC-MS systems that can be used portable systems or be applied in smaller field-laboratories. Certain advances were already achieved on developing such devises [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] that are being used in a number of analyses.…”