Abstract
Ion-attachment mass spectrometry (IAMS) is a form of mass spectrometry that employs a "soft" form of ionization in which a cation is attached to the analyte molecule in a reactive collision. This technique is applicable to gases or any materials that can be vaporized. It uses a non-fragmenting non-conventional ionization mode, by attachment of a lithium or alkaline ion to the gas to be analyzed with a more traditional mass filter. In this study, we developed a prototype devise of the IAMS and conducted preliminary experiments toward an application of the IAMS to the real time monitoring of complex gas mixtures derived from coal thermochemical conversions. The model tar vapor which includes toluene, naphthalene, and 1-metyl-naphthalene, was measured by the IAMS and the results were compared with those obtained from the conventional electron impact (EI) ionization mode. We could successfully identify each molecule without any fragmentation peaks whereas the EI mode gave scattered mass signals due to fragmentation.
