US Patent 8188423 Method and apparatus for ion fragmentation in mass spectrometry

A method for fragmentation of analyte ions for mass spectroscopy and a system for mass spectroscopy. The method produces gas-phase analyte ions, produces gas-phase odd-electron containing species separately from the analyte ions, and mixes the gas-phase analyte ions and the odd-electron containing species at substantially atmospheric pressure conditions to produce fragment ions prior to introduction into a mass spectrometer. The system includes a gas-phase analyte ion source, a gas-phase odd-electron containing species source separate from the gas-phase analyte ion source, a mixing region where the gas-phase analyte ions and the odd-electron containing species are mixed at substantially atmospheric pressure to produce fragment ions of the analyte ions, a mass spectrometer having an entrance where at least a portion of the fragment ions are introduced into a vacuum of the mass spectrometer, and a detector in the mass spectrometer which determines a mass to charge ratio analysis of the fragment ions.