Dresden 2011 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
MS: Fachverband Massenspektrometrie
MS 8: New Mass Spectrometric Methods and Technical Developments
MS 8.6: Talk
Thursday, March 17, 2011, 12:00–12:15, GÖR 229
Analytical detection of explosives and illicit, prescribed and designer drugs using proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-TOF-MS) — •Bishu Agarwal1, Fredrik Petersson1, Simone Jürschik1, Philipp Sulzer2, Alfons Jordan2, Tilmann D. Märk1,2, Peter Watts3, and Chris A. Mayhew3 — 1Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria — 2IONICON Analytik GmbH, Eduard-Bodem-Gasse 3, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria — 3School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 4TT, UK
This work demonstrates the extremely favorable features of Proton Transfer Reaction Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry (PTR-TOF-MS) for the detection and identification of solid explosives, chemical warfare agent simulants and illicit, prescribed and designer drugs in real time.
Here, we report the use of PTR-TOF, for the detection of explosives (e.g., trinitrotoluene, trinitrobenzene) and illicit, prescribed and designer drugs (e.g., ecstasy, morphine, heroin, ethcathinone, 2C-D). For all substances, the protonated parent ion (as we used H3O+ as a reagent ion) could be detected, providing a high level of confidence in their identification since the high mass resolution allows compounds having the same nominal mass to be separated. We varied the E/N from 90 to 220 Td (1 Td = 10-17 Vcm-1). This allowed us to study fragmentation pathways as a function of E/N (reduced electric field). For a few compounds rather unusual E/N dependencies were also discovered.