PTR-MS in Italy: A Multipurpose Sensor with Applications in Environmental, Agri-Food and Health Science

Abstract

Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS) has evolved in the last decade as a fast and high sensitivity sensor for the real-time monitoring of volatile compounds. Its applications range from environmental sciences to medical sciences, from food technology to bioprocess monitoring. Italian scientists and institutions participated from the very beginning in fundamental and applied research aiming at exploiting the potentialities of this technique and providing relevant methodological advances and new fundamental indications. In this review we describe this activity on the basis of the available literature. The Italian scientific community has been active mostly in food science and technology, plant physiology and environmental studies and also pioneered the applications of the recently released PTR-ToF-MS (Proton Transfer Reaction-Time of Flight-Mass Spectrometry) in food science and in plant physiology. In the very last years new results related to bioprocess monitoring and health science have been published as well. PTR-MS data analysis, particularly in the case of the ToF based version, and the application of advanced chemometrics and data mining are also aspects characterising the activity of the Italian community.

Volatile compounds profiling by using proton transfer reaction‐time of flight‐mass spectrometry (PTR‐ToF‐MS). The case study of dark chocolates organoleptic differences

“…For years, categorizing food samples for diverse applications purposes with PTR‐MS has been conducted with a quadrupole as the mass analyser. A lot of examples can be found in the reviews and textbook cited above, a huge contribution being due to Franco Biasioli's group in Italy . Thus, 110 specialty coffees differing in production traits (organic vs conventional) and origins were unambiguously distinguished on the basis of PTR‐MS spectra recorded in the 26 to 200 u range .…”

“…It is out of the scope of this manuscript to cite exhaustively all the results obtained using PTR‐ToF‐MS for foodstuff categorization that have appeared in the literature since the launch of commercial instruments. Many examples with diverse scientific goals can be retrieved in available reviews and, again, an important contribution is due to Franco Biasioli's group in Italy. Thus, the use of PTR‐ToF‐MS to profile blueberry genotypes and to identify the most characteristic VOCs confirmed and complemented the results obtained through the SPME‐GC‐MS analysis cited above .…”

Class‐modeling approach to PTR‐TOFMS data: a peppers case study

“…More recently, the evaluation of organic volatile compounds emitted by food has improved thanks to a new version of PTR‐MS in which the instrument is coupled with a time‐of‐flight mass analyzer (PTR‐TOFMS) with a PTR ion source and drift tube reaction chamber, which enables a precise, highly sensitive and real‐time monitoring of many volatile compounds . One of the advantages of PTR‐TOFMS is the enhanced analytical information provided, allowing a high mass resolution power ( m /Δ m ∼ 4000) that enables separation of many isobaric compounds . Since its development, PTR‐TOFMS has been used in a wide range of fields, including environmental sciences, food monitoring and VOC emissions from plants during various stress conditions …”

Direct Analysis Mass Spectrometry

“…A good summary of PTR-MS applications to the food sciences is included in the book by Ellis and Mayhew, who list entries for more than 130 investigations of food and related issues up until 2012 [50]. A review of PTR-MS applications initiated in Italy was also presented by Cappellin et al [66]. After 2012, many more PTR-MS investigations in food science utilized higher resolution PTR-TOF-MS instruments and several of these investigations are included here.…”

“…Useful reviews on applications of PTR-MS to monitoring VOCs in the atmosphere have been presented [63][64][65][66]. The technique is now an established monitoring method of analysis for real time appraisal of atmospheric VOCs and numerous studies have been completed.…”