Ion Mobility Spectrometry Comes of Age

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and related mobility methods are now recognized as beneficial and accepted within several communities, including analytical sciences, military establishments, security organizations, biomolecular researchers, clinicians, and pharmaceutical researchers. The developments in IMS today, including commercial, research, and other applications, are truly international, and this high level of activity is evident in the number of publications, which has risen sharply in the past 5 years and now surpasses 200 publications annually. 

During this past decade, knowledge of IMS emerged from the spheres of military and security use, for which efforts had been under way for 30 years, into a national and international awareness that IMS analyzers are the core technology to counter increased civilian vulnerability to unconventional warfare through their use in military preparedness, aviation security, and explosive detection. This, when supplemented with successful commercialization of ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) and development of pharmaceutical and clinical applications have altered the presence of IMS in the scientific enterprise. 

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