Bayer Aktiengesellschaft

Alfred Benninghoven

Gunther Kampf

Reimer Holm

A laser activated mass spectrometer having a sample holder for holding a given component to be investigated, a laser source for producing a laser beam to evaporate the given component and a vacuum chamber in which the evaporated component is analyzed, has the sample holder and the given component mounted outside the vacuum chamber of the mass spectrometer under atmospheric pressure or in an inert gas atmosphere. The sample holder comprises a polymer carrier film for depositing the component thereon with the carrier film forming part of a wall of the vacuum chamber of the mass spectrometer. The laser beam is directed onto the deposited component for evaporating the given component and simultaneously forming a hole in the carrier film through which the given component is transferred into the vacuum chamber of the mass spectrometer simultaneously with evaporation.

Laser activated mass spectrometer for the selective analysis of

The analysis comprises first enriching the component to be determined (target component) by contacting an non porous solid surface with the gas or the liquid to be investigated and depositing the target component from the gaseous or liquid phase onto the solid surface in the range of a monolayer preferably within the first monolayer. The deposition is effected by absorbing the target component either directly or in the form of a derivative product, which can then be detected by introducing the solid surface with the enriched target component into a mass spectrometer. Surface sensitive mass analyzers, such as secondary ion mass spectrometers or laser activated mass analyzers, have been proven successful.

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Munich, Georgia

Alfred Benninghoven