Determination of Parts-per-Trillion Levels of Chlorate, Bromate, and Iodate by Electrospray Ionization/High-Field Asymmetric Waveform Ion Mobility Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry

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Abstract
An electrospray ionization (ESI) source was used to transfer oxoanions (XO3−) of nitrogen, chlorine, bromine, and iodine to the gas phase for analysis by a combination of high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) and mass spectrometry. The combination of ESI with FAIMS and mass spectrometry (ESI-FAIMS-MS) yields mass spectra that are virtually free of common spectral interferences. The unique separation and focusing properties of the FAIMS analyzer improved signal-to-background ratios (S/B) for all these analytes by 3–4 orders of magnitude compared with conventional ESI-MS and produced parts-per-trillion (pptr) detection limits for ClO3−, BrO3−, and IO3− in methanolic solution.