Mass spectrometry
Liquid secondary ion mass spectrometry (LSIMS), also known as fast atom or fast ion bombardment mass spectrometry, was a novel ionization technique developed in the early 1980s that revolutionized the analyses of wide range of polar and biological molecules, up to a mass range limit of about 10,000 u, that were previously inaccessible to mass spectrometry. This review explains the principles of LSIMS and its coupling to liquid chromatography and MS/MS. It describes some of the important applications of the technique to peptides and other biomolecules. Certain applications of clinical importance are also described, and the principal advantages and limitations of the method are discussed. Despite its popularity and widespread use during the 1980s, LSIMS was rendered almost obsolete by the emergence later in the same decade of electrospray ionization, which rapidly became the dominant method of choice for analysis of biological materials and remains so to this day.
