Detection of military explosives by atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry with counter-flow introduction

摘要

To detect vapors from explosives, we have developed a new detection system based on a novel ion source for atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI). The direction of the sample gas flow introduced into the ion source. We call this technique "counter-flow introduction" (CFI). The CFI ion source has high ionization efficiency for nitro-compounds and is installed in an ion-trap mass spectrometer. Our tests on various military explosives show that this system is suitable for practical on-line explosive detection; namely major explosives can be detected within a few seconds without any pretreatment of the sample gases.