Sniffing with mass spectrometry

作     者：Miao-Miao Chen Hai-Feng Su Ying Xie Li-Fang He Shui-Chao Lin Mei-Lin Zhang Cheng Wang Su-Yuan Xie Rong-Bin Huang Lan-Sun Zheng 

作者机构：State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials Department of Chemistry College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Xiamen University School of Information Science and Engineering Xiamen University 

出 版 物：《Science Bulletin》 (科学通报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2018年第63卷第20期

页      面：1351-1357页

核心收录：

学科分类：07[理学] 

基　　金：supported by the National Basic Research Program of China(2014CB845601) the National Natural Science Foundation of China(21721001,51572231,and 21390390) 

主　　题：Ambient mass spectrometry Volatile compounds Gas source locating On-line monitoring Olfaction 

摘      要：Gaseous compounds are usually on-line detectable on sensors. The limitations of conventional sensors are suffering from incapability for exactly identifying multiple components as well as incompatibility to possible toxicants in every odor sample. Herein, we discuss an inlet modification to the laboratory standard mass spectrometer, inspired by the sensitive olfactory systems of animals, for direct sniffing,established by connecting a mini pump to the nebulizer gas tubing. The modified mass spectrometry method—sniffing-mass spectrometry(sniffing-MS)—can acquire detailed fingerprint spectra of mixed odors and shows high tolerance to toxicants. Furthermore, the method has a low limit of detection in the order of parts per trillion and is a ‘sampling-free technique for analyzing various gaseous compounds simultaneously, thus offering versatility for smelling daily commodities, tracking diffusion, and locating position of odors. Sniffing-MS can mimic or even surpass the olfaction of animals and is applicable for analyzing gaseous/volatile compounds, especially those polar compounds, in a simple manner depending on the intrinsic molecular mass-to-charge ratio.