Provided herein, among other things, is a method of ionizing a first stream of liquid by an electrospray ion source having a nebulizer, wherein the first stream of liquid may comprise an analyte. In some embodiments, the method may comprise: a) providing the first stream of liquid to the nebulizer; b) adding a second stream of liquid to the first stream of liquid, wherein the second stream of liquid comprises a co-solvent that has a relatively high boiling point and an enhancement solvent that a relatively high boiling; and c) nebulizing and ionizing the resulting liquid.

A nozzle for directing heated gas onto the distal end of a capillary arrangable adjacent the nozzle, the nozzle comprising: a housing defining a plenum for heated gas; and at outlet comprising at least one aperture fluidly connected to the plenum, the outlet configured to direct a curtain of the heated gas onto the distal end of a capillary in use, such that the curtain of heated gas is substantially aligned with the longitudinal axis of the capillary.

In a general aspect, microorganisms [e.g., bacteria, etc.) are identified and detected. In some examples, a liquid solvent is supplied through a first channel of a sampling probe to an internal reservoir of the sampling probe; a fixed volume of the liquid solvent in the internal reservoir is held in direct contact with a sample surface for a period of time to form a liquid analyte; gas is supplied to the internal reservoir through a second channel of the sampling probe; the liquid analyte is extracted from the internal reservoir through a third channel of the sampling probe; the liquid analyte is transferred to a mass spectrometer; the mass spectrometer processes the liquid analyte to produce mass spectrometry data; and the mass spectrometry data are analyzed to detect and identify a microorganism [e.g., acteria, fungi, or another type of microorganism) present at the sample surface.

In a general aspect, chemical compounds (e.g., drugs, agrochemicals, and explosives) are detected. In some examples, a chemical detection system includes a container, an ionization system, a mass spectrometer, one or more computer systems, a sampling probe, and a control system. The sampling probe is configured to receive a liquid solvent from the container; to hold a fixed volume of the liquid solvent in direct contact with a sample surface for a period of time to form an analyte in the sampling probe; and to deliver the analyte to the ionization system. The ionization system is configured to ionize the analyte. The mass spectrometer is configured to produce mass spectrometry data by processing the ionized analyte provided by the ionization system. The one or more computer systems are configured to analyze the mass spectrometry data to detect a chemical compound present on the sample surface.

A drying device comprising a regenerable desiccant medium that is effective to adsorb water without absorption of gaseous analyte species in an introduced ambient air stream is described. The drying device can be used with a thermal desorption device to remove water vapor from gaseous analyte species prior to analysis of the gaseous analyte species. Systems including a drying device are also described.

Provided is a chromatography mass spectrometry capable of peak detection that can deal with a wide concentration range of a sample component and providing an evaluated value for the result. A plurality of samples having different known concentrations of a component are measured to detect a start point, an apex, and an end point of a peak. Regarding the start point, the apex, and the end point of the detected peak, an evaluated value such as probability is provided as a score to determine a score function. A component having an unknown concentration is measured to detect a start point, an apex, and an end point of a peak. Regarding the start point, the apex, and the end point of the detected peak, the score function is applied to evaluate peak detection results, and a result having a high evaluated value is selected as a peak.

Systems and methods are described for heating sample transfer lines between a source of a sample and a detection system to detect analytes of interest in the sample, where the sample is maintained in a heated state to maintain dissolved analytes of interest in solution.

The present disclosure describes embodiments directed to a bubble based ion source system comprising an ion source configured to generate a plurality of ions, a heat source positioned above the container, an ion channel comprising an aperture and a plurality of electrodes, and/or any other components. The ion source further comprises a container at least partially comprising a solvent or solution, a bubble generator coupled to the container configured to generate a plurality of bubbles within the solvent, and/or any other component. The heat source can be configured to evaporate at least a portion of the solvent from each of the bubbles leaving a plurality of ions.

According to some embodiments, systems and methods for rapid evaporation of liquid phase samples are provided. The method includes directing liquid samples to a thermal evaporation ionizing device, thermally evaporating the liquid samples to create gaseous molecular ions, and directing the gaseous molecular ions to an ion analyzer to analyze and provide information regarding the chemical composition of the liquid samples.

Disclosed are methods for improving compound detection and characterization. Methods for characterizing a sample are disclosed. The methods can include providing a sample to a liquid chromatography system capable of sample separation to generate sample components; analyzing sample components by multiplexed targeted selected ion monitoring (SIM) to generate an inclusion list; and performing iterative mass spectral data-dependent acquisition (DDA) from the inclusion list, to identify individual sample components thereby characterizing the sample. In one example, multiplexed targeted SIMs and iterative MS2 DDA acquisition is used to increase robust compound identification for cell culture medium analysis.