Plasma-Excited Nebulizer Gas-Assisted Electrospray Ionization: Enhancing the Sensitivity of Pesticide in Mass Spectrometry
Mingmai Bao, Jiahui Bai, Ying Wang, Suzhen Zhu, Yingchao Liu, Tianlun Wen, Jing Zhang, Shuang‐Cheng Ma, Yinlong Guo
Abstract
Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is widely used in the detection of pesticide residues. However, the detection sensitivity of low-polarity pesticides by commonly used electrospray ionization may be severely suppressed, which greatly affects the limit of detection and repeatability. Herein, a plasma-excited nebulizer gas-assisted electrospray ionization (PENG-ESI) device has been developed. By introducing the discharge plasma formed by Tesla coil into the electrospray nebulizer gas channel, the sensitivity of low-polarity pesticides was significantly increased while maintaining sensitivity to polar pesticides. Under the optimized conditions, the limit of detection for S-bioallethrin was achieved at the level of 100 pg/g with good linearity ( R 2 > 0.99) and precision (RSD ≤ 4.61%). The matrix effect of a series of spiked matrix samples is less than 13.1%. Finally, different pyrethroid pesticide residues were successfully analyzed without separation, highlighting that the technology has potential application prospects in food quality control, environmental monitoring, and other fields.