Battelle Memorial Institute

Thermo Finnigan LLC

Other

University System of Maryland

Keqi Tang

Richard Dale Smith

Alexandre A Shvartsburg

Ryan T Kelly

Yehia M Ibrahim

Jason S Page

Gordon A Anderson

Tsung-Chi Chen

Alan E Schoen

Jean-Jacques Dunyach

Erin M Baker

Harold R Udseth

Nigel P Gore

Mukul Khosla

Yuehe Lin

Iain C Mylchreest

Aleksey Tolmachev

Mikhail B Belov

Xuefei Sun

Taeman Kim

Marques B Harrer

Eric B Johnson

Jeffrey B Abramson

Ian K Webb

Chenchen Wang

An ion funnel device is disclosed. A first pair of electrodes is positioned in a first direction. A second pair of electrodes is positioned in a second direction. The device includes an RF voltage source and a DC voltage source. A RF voltage with a superimposed DC voltage gradient is applied to the first pair of electrodes, and a DC voltage gradient is applied to the second pair of electrodes.

Ion funnel device

An ion manipulation method and device is disclosed. The device includes a pair of substantially parallel surfaces. An array of inner electrodes is contained within, and extends substantially along the length of, each parallel surface. The device includes a first outer array of electrodes and a second outer array of electrodes. Each outer array of electrodes is positioned on either side of the inner electrodes, and is contained within and extends substantially along the length of each parallel surface. A DC voltage is applied to the first and second outer array of electrodes. A RF voltage, with a superimposed electric field, is applied to the inner electrodes by applying the DC voltages to each electrode. Ions either move between the parallel surfaces within an ion confinement area or along paths in the direction of the electric field, or can be trapped in the ion confinement area. A predetermined number of pairs of surfaces are disposed in one or more chambers, forming a multiple-layer ion mobility cyclotron device.

Vacuum chamber for ion manipulation device

An ion manipulation method and device is disclosed. The device includes a pair of substantially parallel surfaces. An array of inner electrodes is contained within, and extends substantially along the length of, each parallel surface. The device includes a first outer array of electrodes and a second outer array of electrodes. Each outer array of electrodes is positioned on either side of the inner electrodes, and is contained within and extends substantially along the length of each parallel surface. A DC voltage is applied to the first and second outer array of electrodes. A RF voltage, with a superimposed electric field, is applied to the inner electrodes by applying the DC voltages to each electrode. Ions either move between the parallel surfaces within an ion confinement area or along paths in the direction of the electric field, or can be trapped in the ion confinement area. The surfaces are housed in a chamber, and at least one electrically insulative shield is coupled to an inner surface of the chamber for increasing a mean-free-path between two adjacent electrodes in the chamber.

Ion manipulation device with electrical breakdown protection

A method for raising the resolving power, specificity, and peak capacity of conventional ion mobility spectrometry is disclosed. Ions are separated in a dynamic electric field comprising an oscillatory field wave and opposing static field, or at least two counter propagating waves with different parameters (amplitude, profile, frequency, or speed). As the functional dependencies of mean drift velocity on the ion mobility in a wave and static field or in unequal waves differ, only single species is equilibrated while others drift in either direction and are mobility-separated. An ion mobility spectrum over a limited range is then acquired by measuring ion drift times through a fixed distance inside the gas-filled enclosure. The resolving power in the vicinity of equilibrium mobility substantially exceeds that for known traveling-wave or drift-tube IMS separations, with spectra over wider ranges obtainable by stitching multiple segments. The approach also enables low-cutoff, high-cutoff, and bandpass ion mobility filters.

Method for enhancing the resolving power of ion mobility separations over a limited mobility range

A method of dissociating ions in a multipole ion guide is disclosed. A stream of charged ions is supplied to the ion guide. A main RF field is applied to the ion guide to confine the ions through the ion guide. An excitation RF field is applied to one pair of rods of the ion guide. The ions undergo dissociation when the applied excitation RF field is resonant with a secular frequency of the ions. The multipole ion guide is, but not limited to, a quadrupole, a hexapole, and an octopole.

Apparatus and method of dissociating ions in a multipole ion guide

A sheathless interface for coupling capillary electrophoresis (CE) with mass spectrometry is disclosed. The sheathless interface includes a separation capillary for performing CE separation and an emitter capillary for electrospray ionization. A portion of the emitter capillary is porous or, alternatively, is coated to form an electrically conductive surface. A section of the emitter capillary is disposed within the separation capillary, forming a joint. A metal tube, containing a conductive liquid, encloses the joint.

Sheathless interface for coupling capillary electrophoresis with mass spectrometry

Microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE) utilizing a sample injector based on a mechanical valve rather than electrokinetic injection can provide improved sample injections, enhanced capabilities, and can eliminate the need for changing the electric field in the separation channel to induce sample injection. In one instance CE electrodes continuously apply an electric field for CE separation along a separation channel. A sample channel is connected to the separation channel at an intersection and has a sample pressure that is greater than that which is present in the separation channel near the intersection. The sample channel does not have electrodes that apply voltages for electrokinetic injection. A sample injector in the sample channel or at the intersection comprises a mechanical valve to control sample injection from the sample channel to the separation channel.

Microchip capillary electrophoresis absent electrokinetic injection

A differential ion mobility spectrometry or field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) platform is disclosed that utilizes both gas flow and electric field, consecutively or simultaneously, to move ions through the analytical gap. The consecutive combination of flow and field enables rapid and flexible switching of the FAIMS stage 'on' (for ion separation) and 'off' (for high non-selective transmission) with no hardware modifications. This capability is needed for effective use of multidimensional instrument systems that couple FAIMS to mass spectrometry and/or conventional ion mobility spectrometry. The joint application of flow and field allows controlling the discrimination against high-mobility ions, maximizing it to remove the chemical noise or minimizing it to make the analyses of complex samples more predictable and uniform.

Platform for field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry with ion propulsion modes employing gas flow and electric field

Systems and methods that provide up to complete transmission of ions between coupled stages with low effective ion losses. An 'interfaceless' electrospray ionization system is further described that operates an electrospray at a reduced pressure such that standard electrospray sample solutions can be directly sprayed into an electrodynamic ion funnel which provides ion focusing and transmission of ions into a mass analyzer. Furthermore, chambers maintained at different pressures can allow for more optimal operating conditions for an electrospray emitter and an ion guide.

Low pressure electrospray ionization system and process for effective transmission of ions

A transfer structure for droplet-based microfluidic analysis is characterized by a first conduit containing a first stream having at least one immiscible droplet of aqueous material and a second conduit containing a second stream comprising an aqueous fluid. The interface between the first conduit and the second conduit can define a plurality of apertures, wherein the apertures are sized to prevent exchange of the first and second streams between conduits while allowing lossless transfer of droplets from the first conduit to the second conduit through contact between the first and second streams.

Lossless droplet transfer of droplet-based microfluidic analysis

Electrospray ionization emitter arrays, as well as methods for forming electrosprays, are described. The arrays are characterized by a radial configuration of three or more nano-electrospray ionization emitters without an extractor electrode. The methods are characterized by distributing fluid flow of the liquid sample among three or more nano-electrospray ionization emitters, forming an electrospray at outlets of the emitters without utilizing an extractor electrode, and directing the electrosprays into an entrance to a mass spectrometry device. Each of the nano-electrospray ionization emitters can have a discrete channel for fluid flow. The nano-electrospray ionization emitters are circularly arranged such that each is shielded substantially equally from an electrospray-inducing electric field.

Radial arrays of nano-electrospray ionization emitters and methods of forming electrosprays

A system and method are disclosed that provide up to complete transmission of ions between coupled stages with low effective ion losses. A novel 'interfaceless' electrospray ionization system is further described that operates the electrospray at a reduced pressure such that standard electrospray sample solutions can be directly sprayed into an electrodynamic ion funnel which provides ion focusing and transmission of ions into a mass analyzer.

An adjustable, low mass-to-charge (m/z) filter is disclosed employing electrospray ionization to block ions associated with unwanted low m/z species from entering the mass spectrometer and contributing their space charge to down-stream ion accumulation steps. The low-mass filter is made by using an adjustable potential energy barrier from the conductance limiting terminal electrode of an electrodynamic ion funnel, which prohibits species with higher ion mobilities from being transmitted. The filter provides a linear voltage adjustment of low-mass filtering from m/z values from about 50 to about 500. Mass filtering above m/z 500 can also be performed; however, higher m/z species are attenuated. The mass filter was evaluated with a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of an albumin tryptic digest and resulted in the ability to block low-mass, 'background' ions which account for 40-70% of the total ion current from the ESI source during peak elution.

Method and apparatus for selective filtering of ions

Disclosed are a device and method for improved interfacing of differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) or field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) analyzers of substantially planar geometry to subsequent or preceding instrument stages. Interfacing is achieved using curved DMS elements, where a thick ion beam emitted by planar DMS analyzers or injected into them for ion filtering is compressed to the gap median by DMS ion focusing effect in a spatially inhomogeneous electric field. Resulting thinner beams are more effectively transmitted through necessarily constrained conductance limit apertures to subsequent instrument stages operated at a pressure lower than DMS, and/or more effectively injected into planar DMS analyzers. The technology is synergetic with slit apertures, slit aperture/ion funnels, and high-pressure ion funnel interfaces known in the art which allow for increasing cross-sectional area of MS inlets. The invention may be used in integrated analytical platforms, including, e.g., DMS/MS, LC/DMS/MS, and DMS/IMS/MS that could replace and/or enhance current LC/MS methods, e.g., for proteomics research.

Hooked differential mobility spectrometry apparatus and method therefore

Methods of forming electrospray ionization emitter tips are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, an end portion of a capillary tube can be immersed into an etchant, wherein the etchant forms a concave meniscus on the outer surface of the capillary. Variable etching rates in the meniscus can cause an external taper to form. While etching the outer surface of the capillary wall, a fluid can be flowed through the interior of the capillary tube. Etching continues until the immersed portion of the capillary tube is completely etched away.

Growing community of inventors

Richland, WA, United States of America

Keqi Tang