Acetone-Enhanced Negative Vacuum Ultraviolet Photoionization Mass Spectrometry for Rapid Detection of Explosives

in this article, an acetone. enhanced negative photoionization (aenp) source based on a 10. 6 ev vacuum ultraviolet (vuv) lamp was developed and coupled to a home. made time. of. flight mass spectrometer for rapid detection of trace explosives. in the aenp source, acetone molecules absorbed 10. 6 ev photons and were ionized by single photon ionization to emit photoelectrons. the photoelectrons reacted with o-2, co2, etc. in the atmosphere to produce mainly co3- negative reactant ions. with this ionization source, common explosives, n-nitrobiz(2-hyolorolroxy ethyl)-amine dinitrate (dina), tetryl, trinitrotoluene (tnt) and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (rdx), could be detected sensitively, and the limit of detection of 2 pg (tnt) with a linear range of 3 orders of magnitude was achieved. the simple structure, high sensitivity characteristics make the aenp source as a promising ionization source for mass spectrometry.