LSIMS, 22 Momentum transfer

If the liquid that is being bombarded contains ions, then some of these will be ejected from the liquid and can be measured by the mass spectrometer. This is an important but not the only means by which ions appear in a FAB or LSIMS spectrum. Momentum transfer of preformed ions in solution can be used to enhance ion yield, as by addition of acid to an amine to give an ammonium species (Figure 4.3). 

The FAB source operates near room temperature, and ions of the substance of interest are lifted out from the matrix by a momentum-transfer process that deposits little excess of vibrational and rotational energy in the resulting quasi-molecular ion. Thus, a further advantage of FAB/LSIMS over many other methods of ionization lies in its gentle or mild treatment of thermally labile substances such as peptides, proteins, nucleosides, sugars, and so on, which can be ionized without degrading their. structures. 

In dynamic FAB, this solution is the eluant flowing from an LC column i.e., the target area is covered by a flowing liquid (dynamic) rather than a static one, as is usually the case where FAB is used to examine single substances. The fast atoms or ions from the gun carry considerable momentum, and when they crash into the surface of the liquid some of this momentum is transferred to molecules in the liquid, which splash back out, rather like the result of throwing a stone into a pond (Figure 13.2). This is a very simplistic view of a complex process that also turns the ejected particles into ions (see Chapter 4 for more information on FAB/LSIMS ionization). 

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