Fast atom bombardment (FAB) is an ionization technique used in mass spectrometry in which an analyte and a non-volatile chemical protection environment (liquid matrix) mixture is bombarded by a ~8KeV particle beam of usually inert gas such as argon or xenon. Common matricies include glycerol and 3-nitrobenzyl alcohol (3-NBA). This technique is very closely related to (if not part of) secondary ion mass spectrometry. FAB is a relatively soft ionization technique and produces primarily protonated molecules denoted as and deprotonated molecules such as [M-H^-. The nature of its ionization products places it close to electrospray and MALDI.

External links

• A good intro to FAB

References

• Barber, M.; Bordoli, R.S.; Sedgewick, R.D.; Tyler, A.N., Journal of the Chemistry Society - Chemical Communications, 1981, pp325-327.

• Barber, M.; Bordoli, R.S.; Sedgewick, R.D.; Tyler, A.N., Nature, 293, 1981, pp270-275.

• Barber, M.; Bordoli, R.S.; Elliott, G.J.; Sedgewick, R.D.; Tyler, A.N., Analytical Chemistry, 54, 1982, pp645A-657A.

Mass spectrometry | Fast atom bombardment