Photo-ionisation mass spectrometry as detection method for gas chromatography: Optical selectivity and multidimensional comprehensive separations

Mass spectrometry (MS) with soft ionisation techniques (i.e. ionisation without fragmentation of the analyte molecules) for gaseous samples exhibits interesting analytical properties for direct analysis applications (i.e. direct inlet mass spectrometric on-line monitoring) as well as mass spectrometric detection method for gas chromatography (GC–MS). Commonly either chemical ionisation (CI) or field ionisation (FI) is applied as soft ionisation technology for GC–MS. An interesting alternative to the CI and FI technologies methods are photo-ionisation (PI) methods. PI overcomes some of the limitations of CI and FI and furthermore add some unique analytical properties. The resonance enhanced multi-photon ionisation (REMPI) method uses intense UV-laser pulses (wavelength range ∼350–193 nm) for highly selective, sensitive and soft ionisation of predominately aromatic compounds. The single photon ionisation (SPI) method utilises VUV light (from lamps or laser sources, wavelengths range ∼150–110 nm) can be used for a universal soft ionisation of organic molecules. In this article the historical development as well as the current status and concepts of gas chromatography hyphenated to photo-ionisation mass spectrometry are reviewed.