Technical note: Tandem Ionisation – Revolutionary soft ionisation to enhance CONFIDENCE IN IDENTIFICATION

This technical note describes the use of Tandem Ionisation^® for BenchTOF2™ mass spectrometers to acquire both hard (70 eV) and soft (10–20 eV) electron ionisation (EI) in a single analysis. As well as describing the theoretical background to the technique and the benefits that stem from soft EI, we point out how Tandem Ionisation breaks new ground by providing confident sample characterisation in a single, streamlined workflow.

Tandem Ionisation provides fast switching (or multiplexing) between two ionisation energies in a single analytical run, enabling two sets of spectra to be acquired at the same time – reference-quality 70 eV spectra and ‘soft’ ionisation spectra with stronger molecular ions and less fragmentation, for improved discrimination between structurally similar isomers.

By enabling two sets of complementary spectra to be generated from a single GC or GCxGC analysis (as shown in the figure for caryophyllene), Tandem Ionisation allows complex samples containing structurally similar compounds to be comprehensively characterised.

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