A new atmospheric pressure ionization method, plasmaspray ionization, termed as PSI, was developed to be an alternative ambient ion source for mass spectrometry. It comprises a plasma jet device and a sample spray part. While the nonthermal plasma jet strikes the surface of stainless steel tube out of the spray capillary, the sprayed sample will be ionized with the assistant of auxiliary gas. Although PSI is a little bit more complex than electrospray ionization (ESI) in instrument, it shows both better linearity and higher sensitivity for organic compounds. For protein samples, it presents wider distributions of multiply charged ions and higher mass resolution without sacrificing any sensitivity. For the mechanism of PSI, the charge build‐up process on the tip of capillary should play a key role for the ion formation, and the stimulated pulsed voltage on the flow tube will promote the ion aggregation speed until the charge density is high enough. PSI source contains the features of plasma ionization and ESI and can be considered as a novel combo bridging these techniques. These results reflect that this method of PSI can be applied and further developed as a versatile new ion source for a wild range of organic and biological samples.

中文翻译：

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用于环境质谱的新型大气压等离子喷雾电离的开发

一种新的大气压电离方法，等离子喷雾电离，称为 PSI，被开发为质谱分析的替代环境离子源。它包括等离子喷射装置和样品喷射部分。当非热等离子体射流从喷雾毛细管中撞击不锈钢管表面时，喷雾样品将在辅助气体的辅助下被电离。尽管 PSI 在仪器中比电喷雾电离 (ESI) 稍微复杂一些，但它对有机化合物显示出更好的线性和更高的灵敏度。对于蛋白质样品，它在不牺牲任何灵敏度的情况下提供更广泛的多电荷离子分布和更高的质量分辨率。对于PSI的机制，毛细管尖端的电荷积累过程应该对离子形成起关键作用，流管上的受激脉冲电压将促进离子聚集速度，直到电荷密度足够高。PSI 源包含等离子体电离和 ESI 的特征，可以被视为桥接这些技术的新型组合。这些结果表明，这种 PSI 方法可以应用并进一步发展为用于各种有机和生物样品的多功能新离子源。