New progress and prospect of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry

The principle of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR) is introduced briefly in this paper. The concepts of ion cyclotron frequency, ion cyclotron radius, ion velocity and ion energy are elaborated; and the principles of ion excitation and detection are discussed carefully. Recent progresses of coupling FT-ICR with ambient ionization techniques are reviewed. The analytes in the samples with complicated matrix can be ionized directly without or just with minimal sample pretreatment using ambient ionization, so the coupling of ambient ionization techniques with FT-ICR will extend the application of FT-ICR, which becomes one of the next topics in the field of mass spectrometry.