ION MOLECULE REACTION AND ION EVAPORATION IN ATMOSPHERIC-PRESSURE SPRAY IONIZATION

The positive ions produced in atmospheric pressure spray ionization of ammonia, alanine and sucrose in aqueous solution were detected with a double-focusing mass spectrometer. The relative intensities of the quasi-molecular ions of ammonia, NH4+ (H2O)n (n = 0-3), were found to be proportional to the concentration of the ammonia solution and to increase with increasing distance d between the nozzle tip and the sample aperture of the mass spectrometer; this observation shows that the ammonia molecule is produced by the spray and is protonated at atmospheric pressure by a proton transfer reaction with the hydronium ion and its hydrated clusters. The observed dependences of the relative intensities of the protonated alanine molecules from alanine solution and the cationized sucrose molecules from sucrose solution on d show that some part of these quasi-molecular ions are also produced by the ion/molecule reaction in the gas phase. However, their dependences on the concentration, which are steeper than that in the ammonia case, indicate that a significant proportion of these ions are produced by ion evaporation from a droplet or liquid.