Gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry has been recognized as a rapid, sensitive, portable approach at low cost in food safety analysis, environmental monitoring, and security screening. However, the peak identification remains a major challenge due to the lack of sufficiently comprehensive reference databases. This study successfully developed and validated an integrated gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry/mass spectrometry (GC-IMS/MS) platform incorporating Fourier deconvolution (FD) technology and a pinhole IMS-MS interface, aiming to resolve the limitations of low ion utilization efficiency and detector sensitivity imbalance in conventional GC-IMS/MS systems. The implementation of FD multiplexing increased the ion gate duty cycle from R2 > 0.995) across concentration ranges spanning 3 orders of magnitude and achieving detection limits at the ng/mL level. Three complex extracts including tobacco, Da Hong Pao tea, and apricot flavoring were investigated to evaluate the performance of the developed system, and it was demonstrated that the developed system exhibited precise compound identification and high-throughput nontargeted screening capabilities.
Zheng et al. (Fri,) studied this question.