PTMRS was developed by scientists at the Institut für Ionenphysik at the Leopold- Franzens University in Innsbruck, Austria. The technology is based on reactions of ion donors (usually H3O+), which perform non-dissociative proton transfer, to all Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) with a higher proton affinity than water. Common constituents of air such as N2, O2, Ar, CO2 etc. have a lower proton affinity than H2O and are therefore not detected; the ionization efficiency is quite high and these characteristics result in sensitivity allowing the detection of VOCs in air in the pptv range.

The very soft ionization technique avoids mass fragmentation, which enhances the interpretability of mass spectra. A TOF-MS linked to the PTR system offers real-time, high time resolution, high sensitivity detection of all analytes in parallel. There is no need for time consuming sample preparations or chromatographic separation before injection into the PTR MS inlet.

* Source: Proton Transfer Reaction/Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionisation

* Analyser: Time of Flight Reflectron for parallel detection

* Mass resolution δM/M: 1300

* Compounds detectable: All molecules with proton affinity > H2O

* Detection limit: few pptv