Ion-mobility Spectrometry - Applications

Applications

Perhaps ion mobility spectrometry's greatest strength is the speed at which separations occur—typically on the order of tens of milliseconds. This feature combined with its ease of use, relatively high sensitivity, and highly compact design have allowed IMS as a commercial product to be used as a routine tool for the field detection of explosives, drugs, and chemical weapons. Major manufacturers of IMS screening devices used in airports are Morpho and Smiths Detection.

In the pharmaceutical industry IMS is used in cleaning validations, demonstrating that reaction vessels are sufficiently clean to proceed with the next batch of pharmaceutical product. IMS is much faster and more accurate than HPLC and total organic carbon methods previously used. IMS is also used for analyzing the composition of drugs produced, thereby finding a place in quality assurance and control. As a research tool ion mobility is becoming more widely-used in the analysis of biological materials, specifically, proteomics and metabolomics. For example, IMS-MS using MALDI as the ionization method has helped make advances in proteomics, providing faster high-resolution separations of protein pieces in analysis.

Aspirating IMS is an ion mobility spectrometry technology used to detect low or trace quantities of chemicals in the surrounding atmosphere. It is applied in industrial and military purposes to detect harmful substances in air. Aspiration IMS operates with open-loop circulation of sampled air. Sample flow is passed via ionization chamber and then enters to measurement area where the ions are deflected into one or more measuring electrodes by perpendicular electric field which can be either static or varying. The output of the sensor is characteristic of the ion mobility distribution and can be used for detection and identification purposes.

In metabolomics the IMS is used to detect lung cancer, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Sarcoidosis, potential rejections after Lung transplantation and relations to bacteria within the lung.