Pure and Applied Chemistry

The relatively young field of ion mobility spectrometry has now advanced to the stage where the need to reliably exchange the spectroscopic data obtained worldwide by this technique has become extremely urgent. To assist in the validation of the various new spectrometer designs and to assist in inter-comparisons between different laboratories reference data collections are being established for which an internationally recognized electronic data exchange format is essential.

To make the data exchange between users and system administration possible, it is important to define a file format specially made for the requirements of ion mobility spectrometry. The format should be computer readable and flexible enough for extensive comments to be included. In this document, we define a data exchange format, agreed on by a working group of the International Society for Ion Mobility Spectrometry at Hilton Head Island, USA (1998) and Buxton, UK (1999).

This definition of this format is based on the IUPAC JCAMP-DX protocols, which were developed for the exchange of infrared spectra [1] and extended to chemical structures [2], nuclear magnetic resonance data [3], and mass spectra [4]. This standard of the Joint Committee on Atomic and Molecular Physical Data is of a flexible design. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry have taken over the support and development of these standards and recently brought out an extension to cover year 2000 compatible date strings and good laboratory practice [5]. The aim of this paper is to adapt JCAMP-DX to the special requirements of ion mobility spectra [6].