Ion desorption model

Later on, Iribarne and Thomson proposed a different mechanism for the production of gas-phase ions from charged droplets [27,28]. Interestingly, the motivation for their studies was far removed from a concern for the needs of mass spectrometry. Instead, it stemmed from their interest in charged droplets as a possible source of ions in the atmosphere. They proposed a model for such ion formation based on the idea that, on charged droplets that were small enough, evaporation could make the surface field sufficiently intense to lift solute ions from the droplet into the ambient gas before the Rayleigh limit is reached. This model is nowadays usually referred to as ion desorption model (IDM). 

Figure 2.21. Desorption of ions from charged droplets into the gas phase (a) charge-residue model (b) ion-desorption model (From ref. 81.)...

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