ABSTRACT
While atmospheric pressure ionization (API) has attracted occasional interest over the past several years as an attractive method in principle for coupling a liquid chromatograph to a mass spectrometer, it is only recently that the full potential has begun to be demonstrated. The advantages are readily apparent — ability to cope with large amounts of organic and aqueous solvents without taxing a pumping system and high sensitivity associated with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization. In the API source, a current-controlled corona discharge ionizes solvent molecules and buffer salts, which act as reagent ions to ionize the analyte molecules. The survey of some of the characteristics of two liquid chromatography (LC)/mass spectrometry (MS) inlets clearly demonstrates that API/LC/MS has a wide range of potential applications for chemical analysis. It is suitable for the analysis of biochemical compounds which are polar and semi volatile or in volatile in nature.
