Fast atom bombardment

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Fast atom bombardment (FAB) is an ionization technique used in mass spectrometry in which an analyte and a non-volatile chemical protection environment (liquid matrix) mixture is bombarded by a ~8KeV particle beam of usually inert gas such as argon or xenon. Common matricies include glycerol and 3-nitrobenzyl alcohol (3-NBA). This technique is very closely related to (if not part of) secondary ion mass spectrometry. FAB is a relatively soft ionization technique and produces primarily protonated molecules denoted as [M+H]⁺ and deprotonated molecules such as [M-H]^-. The nature of its ionization products places it close to electrospray and MALDI.