Ion source

In mass spectrometry, an ion source is a piece of equipment used to ionize analyte molecules and, if necessary, free them from the solid or liquid phase. Once the analyte ions are free to move electric fields will direct them into the mass analyzer.

There are several types of ion sources:

• electron ionization (EI)
• chemical ionization (CI)
• fast atom bombardment (FAB)
• field desorption (FD)
• matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI)
• electrospray ionization (ESI)
• thermospray ionization (TS)