Desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization: A review.

Desorption Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization (DAPCI) is an ambient ionization technique for mass spectrometry (MS). DAPCI is a plasma-based ionization technique that uses inert, high-velocity gas, and solvent ions to ionize the analytes in a sample. This technique allows both volatile and non-volatile species to be analyzed and provides for more efficient and sensitive detection of low polarity compounds. DAPCI has been used in many applications such as explosives, forensics, environmental, food safety, pharmaceuticals, and biologicals. This paper is an overview of the development of DAPCI techniques, followed by an overview of its applications.