State of ion mobility spectrometry and applications in agriculture: A review

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has been employed successfully to detect chemicals such as explosives, illicit drugs, chemical warfare agents, pharmaceutical chemicals, and environmental pollutants. However, applications of IMS in pre- and post-harvest agriculture production management has not been explored adequately. Characteristics such as high sensitivity, selectivity, analytical flexibility, field portability, and real-time monitoring abilities offer great potential of IMS applications in agriculture. In this paper, reviewed are the different types of IMS, their working principles, and agricultural applications. Some of the agricultural applications include; detection of contaminants affecting soil and plants, assessing plant stress, and monitoring postharvest agricultural produce quality and safety.