Enantiomer-specific analysis of multi-component mixtures by correlated electron imaging–ion mass spectrometry

Simultaneous, enantiomer-specific identification of chiral molecules in multi-component mixtures is extremely challenging. Many established techniques for single-component analysis fail to provide selectivity in multi-component mixtures and lack sensitivity for dilute samples. Here we show how enantiomers may be differentiated by mass-selected photoelectron circular dichroism using an electron–ion coincidence imaging spectrometer. As proof of concept, vapours containing ∼1% of two chiral monoterpene molecules, limonene and camphor, are irradiated by a circularly polarized femtosecond laser, resulting in multiphoton near-threshold ionization with little molecular fragmentation. Large chiral asymmetries (2–4%) are observed in the mass-tagged photoelectron angular distributions. These asymmetries switch sign according to the handedness (R- or S-) of the enantiomer in the mixture and scale with enantiomeric excess of a component. The results demonstrate that mass spectrometric identification of mixtures of chiral molecules and quantitative determination of enantiomeric excess can be achieved in a table-top instrument.