Rapid analysis of metal ions and organic compounds in strong acidic solutions by nano-ESI mass spectrometry

Rapid analysis of metal ions and organic compounds in strong acidic solutions is of sustainable interest in multiple disciplines. However, complicated and time-consuming pretreatments are always required for MS analysis of the compounds in strong acidic solutions. Otherwise, it will result in a weak signal and cause serious damage to the mass spectrometer. Herein, a simple method inherited from nano-ESI MS was developed for rapid analysis of strong acidic solutions. Nanoliter (nL) strong acidic solution was first loaded in the nano-ESI emitter, followed by evaporation to remove the H+ and leave the analytes on the wall of the nano-ESI emitter. The evaporation process can be completed within 1 min because of the extremely tiny volume ( <= 1 nL) of the loaded solution. Then, the dried analytes on the wall of the nano-ESI emitter were redissolved by loading a new solvent, followed by nano-ESI MS analysis. By using this method, metal ions and organic compounds in the strong acidic solution can be detected with low sample consumption (1 nL), high speed (< 2 min/sample), high sensitivity (limit of detection = 0.2 mu g/L), and high accuracy ( > 90%). Proof-of-concept applications of the present method have been successfully achieved for the analysis of gastric juice (pH of the sample = 1), monitoring reaction catalyzed by strong acid (pH of the system = 0), and micro-area analysis of ores (pH of the extraction solvent = 0), showing great application potential in multiple fields.

Automated summary

In this study, a simple method using nano-ESI MS was developed for rapid analysis of metal ions and organic compounds in strong acidic solutions. The method offers low sample consumption, high speed, high sensitivity, and high accuracy, and shows great application potential in fields such as gastric juice analysis, monitoring of acid-catalyzed reactions, and micro-area analysis of ores.