Ionization of organic crystals with a tunable dye laser connected to a LAMMA instrument

Potential of laser ablation and laser desorption mass spectrometry to characterize organic and inorganic environmental pollutants on dust particles

Stainless steel factories are known to release particles into the atmosphere. Such particulate matter contains significant amounts of heavy metals or toxic inorganic compounds and organic pollutants such as, for example, Cr(VI) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The investigation of Cr(VI) and PAHs is often complicated by the associated matrix. Organic and inorganic pollutants present in stainless steel dust particles have been investigated with the same laser microprobe mass spectrometer according to two original methodologies. These analytical methods do not require time-consuming pretreatment (extraction, solubilization) or preconcentration steps. More specifically, experiments are conducted with a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer coupled to an ArF (193 nm) or a tripled frequency Nd-YAG (355 nm) laser. Experiments at 355 nm allow the nature of the most frequently occurring Cr(III)/Cr(VI) compounds in dust particles to be identified. Examination of PAHs at 193 nm is assisted by the formation of pi-complexes with 7,7',8,8'-tetracyanoquinodimethane to prevent their evaporation in the mass spectrometer during analysis and to ensure an increase in sensitivity.

Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry of Diesel Particulate Matter with Charge-Transfer Complexes

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are often associated with complex matrixes such as exhaust diesel particulate matter (DPM), which complicates their study. In that case, laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry is one of the techniques which ensures their direct analysis in the solid state. We demonstrate in this paper that the use of charge-transfer pi-complexing agents allows us to selectively detect by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry PAHs adsorbed on diesel particles with high sensitivity. 2,4,7-trinitro-9-fluorenone and 7,7',8,8'-tetracyanoquinodimethane pi-acceptor compounds form charge-transfer complexes with PAHs and prevent their evaporation in the mass spectrometer during analysis. Moreover, the production of PAH molecular ions is dramatically increased by laser irradiation of these complexes at short wavelength (221.7 nm) and low power density (5 x 10(6) W cm(-)(2)). This methodology is applied for the first time to the examination of DPM collected during the new European driving cycle for light-duty vehicles. Differentiation criteria may coherently be assigned to engine operating mode (engine temperature, driving conditions). DPM samples can also be easily distinguished in negative ions according to the high sensitivity of this detection mode to sulfate compounds.