Plasma-Excited Nebulizer Gas-Assisted Electrospray Ionization: Enhancing the Sensitivity of Pesticide in Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is widely used in the detection of pesticide residues. However, the detection sensitivity of low-polarity pesticides by commonly used electrospray ionization may be severely suppressed, which greatly affects the limit of detection and repeatability. Herein, a plasma-excited nebulizer gas-assisted electrospray ionization (PENG-ESI) device has been developed. By introducing the discharge plasma formed by Tesla coil into the electrospray nebulizer gas channel, the sensitivity of low-polarity pesticides was significantly increased while maintaining sensitivity to polar pesticides. Under the optimized conditions, the limit of detection for S-bioallethrin was achieved at the level of 100 pg/g with good linearity (R 2 > 0.99) and precision (RSD ≤ 4.61%). The matrix effect of a series of spiked matrix samples is less than 13.1%. Finally, different pyrethroid pesticide residues were successfully analyzed without separation, highlighting that the technology has potential application prospects in food quality control, environmental monitoring, and other fields.

Experimental study of the effect of gas discharge on ionic liquid electrospray

“…The corona discharge that accompanies electrospray has obvious advantages in areas such as water treatment [17,18] and sterilization [19,20]. It can also enhance the sensitivity of pesticide in mass spectrometry [21].…”

Pressure-Driven Switching of Photoelectron Impact Ionization-Chemical Ionization/Penning Ionization in Vacuum Ultraviolet Photoionization Mass Spectrometry

“…In fact, besides impact ionization, collisions between electrons and atoms/molecules also resulted in the production of large numbers of long-lived metastable atoms/molecules, leading to Penning ionization (PenI), , which would occur when the IE of the analyte was lower than the excitation energy (EE) of the metastable atom/molecule. Several discharge ionization sources have been constructed for direct sampling MS analysis of complicated samples based on the PenI mechanism, such as metastable atom bombardment (MAB), direct analysis in real time (DART), dielectric barrier discharge ionization (DBDI), arc plasma-based dissociation, and plasma-excited nebulizer gas-assisted electrospray ionization . Attributed to the soft ionization property of PenI, the isobaric ions interference due to the fragmentation and rearrangement of polychlorinated diphenyl ethers (PCDEs) in EI was eliminated in polychlorinated dioxins and furans (PCDD/PCDF) analysis .…”

Concentric Hybrid Nanoelectrospray Ionization‐Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization Source for High‐Coverage Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Single‐Cell Metabolomics

“…[ 21 ] The plasma‐excited nebulizer gas‐assisted electrospray ionization (PENG‐ESI) device was established by introducing plasma into the electrospray nebulizer gas channel to detect pesticides in complex substrates with high sensitivity while maintaining good linearity, repeatability, and low matrix effects. [ 22 ] The Zenobi's group introduced a combination of nanoESI and DBDI. The capillary probe was used as both cell sampling needles and nanoESI ionization source, and DBDI was used as a post‐ionization source.…”