Paper Spray Chemical Ionization: Highly Sensitive Ambient Ionization Method for Low- and Nonpolar Aromatic Compounds.

Sensitivity is an important factor determining successful mass spectrometry (MS) analysis of metabolome, protein, drugs, and environmental samples. Currently, nanoelectrospray ionization (ESI) is widely used as a sensitive ionization method. However, application of nano-ESI is limited to polar molecules and there is no atmospheric pressure ionization technique developed that can be used for MS analysis of low- and nonpolar compounds with sensitivity that can match with nano-ESI. Herein, we propose paper spray chemical ionization (PSCI) as an ionization technique that can be used to analyze low- and nonpolar aromatic compounds with high sensitivity. PSCI is based on paper spray ionization utilizing corona discharge phenomenon. PSCI can sensitively and quantitatively detect down to picogram (or femtomole) levels of low- and nonpolar aromatic compounds.