Polyatomic ions in thermal ionisation mass spectrometry — challenges and opportunities

A review on the determination of isotope ratios of boron with mass spectrometry

The present review discusses different mass spectrometric techniques-viz, thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS), and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)-used to determine ¹¹ B/¹⁰ B isotope ratio, and concentration of boron required for various applications in earth sciences, marine geochemistry, nuclear technology, environmental, and agriculture sciences, etc. The details of the techniques-P-TIMS, which uses Cs₂ BO₂⁺ , N-TIMS, which uses BO₂^- , and MC-ICPMS, which uses B⁺ ions for bulk analysis or B^- and B⁺ ions for in situ micro-analysis with SIMS-are highlighted. The capabilities, advantages, limitations, and problems in each mass spectrometric technique are summarized. The results of international interlaboratory comparison experiments conducted at different times are summarized. The certified isotopic reference materials available for boron are also listed. Recent developments in laser ablation (LA) ICPMS and QQQ-ICPMS for solids analysis and MS/MS analysis, respectively, are included. The different aspects of sample preparation and analytical chemistry of boron are summarized. Finally, the future requirements of boron isotope ratios for future applications are also given. Presently, MC-ICPMS provides the best precision and accuracy (0.2-0.4‰) on isotope ratio measurements, whereas N-TIMS holds the potential to analyze smallest amount of boron, but has the issue of bias (+2‰ to 4‰) which needs further investigations. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Mass Spec Rev 36:499-519, 2017.

Mass spectrometry in India

This review emphasizes the mass spectrometry research being performed at academic and established research institutions in India. It consists of three main parts covering the work done in organic, atomic and biological mass spectrometry. The review reveals that the use of mass spectrometry techniques started in the middle of the 20th century and was applied to research in the fields of organic, nuclear, geographical and atomic chemistry. Later, with the advent of soft and atmospheric ionization techniques it has been applied to pharmaceutical and biological research. In due course, several research centers with advanced mass spectrometry facilities have been established for specific areas of research such as gas-phase ion chemistry, ion-molecule reactions, proscribed chemicals, pesticide residues, pharmacokinetics, protein/peptide chemistry, nuclear chemistry, geochronological studies, archeology, petroleum industry, proteomics, lipidomics and metabolomics. Day-by-day the mass spectrometry centers/facilities in India have attracted young students for their doctoral research and other advanced research applications.