High Kinetic Energy Ion Mobility Spectrometers (HiKE-IMS) ionize and separate ions at reduced pressures of 10–40 mbar and over a wide range of reduced electric field strengths E/N of up to 120 Td. Their reduced operating pressure is distinct from that of conventional drift tube ion mobility spectrometers that operate at ambient pressure for trace compound detection. High E/N can lead to a field-induced fragmentation pattern that provides more specific structural information about the analytes. In addition, operation at high E/N values adds the field dependence of ion mobility as an additional separation dimension to low-field ion mobility, making interfering compounds less likely to cause a false positive alarm. In this work, we study the chemical warfare agents tabun (GA), sarin (GB), soman (GD), cyclosarin (GF) and sulfur mustard (HD) in a HiKE-IMS at variable E/N in both the reaction and the drift region. The results show that varying E/N can lead to specific fragmentation patterns at high E/N values combined with molecular signals at low E/N. Compared to the operation at a single E/N value in the drift region, the variation of E/N in the drift region also provides the analyte-specific field dependence of ion mobility as additional information. The accumulated data establish a unique fingerprint for each analyte that allows for reliable detection of chemical warfare agents even in the presence of interfering compounds with similar low-field ion mobilities, thus reducing false positives.

中文翻译：

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使用高动能离子淌度光谱法可靠检测化学战剂


高动能离子淌度谱仪 (HiKE-IMS) 可在 10-40 mbar 的减压条件下以及高达 120 Td 的各种降低电场强度E / N下电离和分离离子。其降低的操作压力与在环境压力下操作以检测痕量化合物的传统漂移管离子迁移谱仪不同。高E / N可以产生场诱导的碎片模式，从而提供有关分析物的更具体的结构信息。此外，在高E / N值下操作增加了离子淌度的场依赖性，作为低场离子淌度的附加分离维度，使得干扰化合物不太可能引起误报。在这项工作中，我们在 HiKE-IMS 中研究化学战剂塔崩 (GA)、沙林 (GB)、梭曼 (GD)、环沙林 (GF) 和硫芥 (HD) ，在反应和漂移区。结果表明，不同的E / N可以导致高E / N值下的特定断裂模式与低E / N下的分子信号相结合。与漂移区中单个E / N值的操作相比，漂移区中E / N的变化还提供了分析物特定的离子迁移率场依赖性作为附加信息。积累的数据为每种分析物建立了独特的指纹，即使存在具有类似低场离子迁移率的干扰化合物，也可以可靠地检测化学战剂，从而减少误报。