Post-ionization of neutrals for ion mobility oTOFMS identification of molecules and elements desorbed from surfaces

An apparatus comprising:

• an ion source for repetitively or continuously generating ions and neutrals;
• a post-ionization device fluidly coupled to said ion source to post-ionize or fragment at least a fraction of said ions and neutrals;
• an ion mobility cell capable of receiving the directly desorbed ions and the post-ionized ions;
• an ion extractor, fluidly coupled to said ion-mobility device capable of extracting said ions;
• a mass spectrometer fluidly coupled to and accepting said ions and fragment ions from said ion extractor,
• a position sensitive ion detector fluidly coupled to said time-of-flight mass spectrometer to detect said ions and fragment ions;
• a timing controller in electronic communication with said ion source and said ion extractor said timing controller tracking and controlling the time of activation of said ion source and controlling the activation of the post-ionization device and activation of said ion extractor according to a predetermined sequence to extract an analyte and a calibrant from a sample, wherein said calibrant is a giant fullerene or a derivatized giant fullerene;
• and,
• a data processing unit for analyzing and presenting data said data processing unit in electronic communication with said ion source, said ion extractor, and said position sensitive ion detector.