Jason D. Harper

TL;DR: A low-temperature plasma (LTP) probe has been developed for ambient desorption ionization and demonstration applications include direct analysis of cocaine from human skin, determination of active ingredients directly in drug tablets, and analysis of toxic and therapeutic compounds in complex biological samples.

TL;DR: The performance of the mass spectrometer for large and small molecules is characterized and limits of detection in the parts-per-billion range were obtained for selected compounds examined using both the internal ionization and external ionization modes.

TL;DR: Results demonstrate the potential usefulness and ruggedness of LTP-MS for the detection of explosives of different classes and the use of ion/molecule reactions to form adducts with particular explosives such as RDX and HMX was shown to enhance the selectivity and specificity.

TL;DR: Low temperature plasma (LTP) ionization is an ambient plasma ionization method that permits the direct mass analysis of samples in their native atmospheric environment with little or no sample preparation and the main advantages observed include the capabilities for direct analysis of liquid surfaces for in situ detection and the remarkable sensitivity in the examination of the drugs of abuse investigated here.

TL;DR: The results demonstrate that ambient LTP-MS can be applied for the detection and confirmation of traces of agrochemicals in actual market-purchased produce and in natural water samples.