ABSTRACT
The high sensitivity of ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) toward compounds that have high electronegativity (EN) or proton affinity (PA), fast response times, and man portability make IMS analyzers ideally suited for detecting trace amounts of certain chemicals. Among those are most of the common explosives that are highly electronegative due to the presence of nitro groups, several illicit drugs that contain amide groups and have a high proton affinity and most of the chemical warfare agents that are either organophosphorus derivatives (high PA) or contain halogen atoms (high EN). This potential for forensic applications was recognized early in tests of IMS on behalf of several U.S. government agencies for detection of personnel,1 explosives,2-4 and narcotics.4 Chemistry is central to these applications and discussions of the principles and technology may be found in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. Specialized discussions or review articles have appeared regarding forensic applications of, IMS,5-8 and the large number of publications in forensic journals illustrate the prominent role of IMS and possible future uses in this area.
