Introduction Principles of Mass Spectrometry

Since the 1980s a revolution in the use of mass spectrometry for biological analyses has occurred and continues today. A major reason for this development was the introduction of new ionisation techniques such as fast atom bombardment (FAB), plasma desorption (PD) and thermospray (TSP) permitting the production of gas phase ions from charged and polar biopolymers [7—10). It has reached a first culmination with the recent award of the 2002 Nobel prizes in chemistry to two scientists pioneering the development of electrospray-ionisation and laser desorption mass spectrometry, John Fenn and Kuichi Tanaka [11, 12]. 

Handbook of Spectroscopy, Volume 1. Edited by Gunter Gauglitz and Tuan Vo-Dinh Copyright 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN 3-527-29782-0 

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