Photo-ionization Gc×gc-hrtof/ms for Aviation Fuel Characterization

Recent application of photo-ionization (PI) coupled with GC×GC-HRTOF/MS for authentic standard mix called century mix along with several groups of petrochemical samples demonstrated PI as an effective soft-ionization technique to characterize volatile mixtures particularly, hydrocarbons [1]. This soft-ionization technology was shown to enhance analyte speciation by providing both molecular ions and structurally significant fragments at low-energy (10.8 eV). The enhanced sensitivity and selectivity stemming from the dramatic reduction in fragmentation at low energies also greatly increases the number of compounds identified, permitting robust statistical comparisons essential for successful chemical fingerprinting of petrochemical base oils.