Hello community in my post today I would like to address an issue that excites me because besides being directly related to the area in which I work, it also has a lot to contribute from the technological world

The generation of ions in spectrometers for conducting studies and investigations involves many factors, some studies require profuse ions and others selectivity. There are cases in which the energy with which the ion originates is of great importance. That is why today I would like to explain some of the most used ionization techniques.

Electron Ionization.

This ionization method is the most frequently used in mass spectrometry equipment. And is that through this method the energy with which the electron is accelerated can generate the formation of anions, cations, and even division into neutral and ionic species.
It basically consists in making the molecules of a substance interact with an electron beam originated in a metallic filament heated to an extremely high temperature, so that later the impact of the electrons on the volatile molecules can form ions.

Source
CC BY-SA 4.0

This method is highly used because its implementation is extremely simple.

Ionization by Laser Radiation.

In this type of ionization, laser radiation is fired at atoms or molecules and depending on the type of interaction that occurs while the radiation is added, the separation of electrons can be determined, originating positive ions.

Source
CC BY-SA 1.0

It should be noted that the absorption of energy from laser radiation can break the molecules producing ionic and molecular species.

Chemical Ionization.

One of the alternative methods of ionization is chemical ionization. For the implementation of this type of ionization, the use of a chromatograph is necessary, since it usually involves using a reactive gas with a high pressure at the source of ion formation. So the reactive gases, which are common: methane, isobutane, and ammonium are circulated through the sample to ionize. So that the resulting mixture that was initially bombarded, can be separated.

Using the methane gas the expected species are CH4 +. and CH3 +. At high pressures, the collision of these species and ion-molecule reactions with the reactant gas itself can lead to the formation of secondary ions, with a small excess of internal energy

These secondary ions will eventually collide with molecules in the sample, resulting in the chemical ionization of the latter. Chemical ionization is generally due to protonation, especially for basic compounds.

The amount of disruption can be altered by the nature of the reactive gas. In general, both the strips of the protonated compounds and the degree of division decay when the reactive gas is modified in the order: methane> isobutane> ammonium. For example, ammonium will weakly protonate basic molecules such as alcohols and amines.

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References.

• Wikipedia
• Iopscience
• Eesemi
• Britannica
• Wikipedia
• Emory

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[1] All the content exposed in this post is a compilation of different sources besides my knowledge in the subject.
[2] All the images used are correctly labeled for reuse.