The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 27, 1998
Filed:
Mar. 03, 1997
Joseph A Jarrell, Newton Highlands, MA (US);
Michael J Tomany, Thompson, CT (US);
Waters Investments Limited, New Castle, DE (US);
Abstract
An electrospray (ES) apparatus provides efficient reagent addition and improved ionization of an analyte aerosol at high flow rates by combining an ionized reagent aerosol with the analyte aerosol, thereby producing a superior ionized analyte aerosol for mass spectronomy (MS) implementations. The ES apparatus separately receives a reagent and a flow stream comprising analyte. The ES apparatus nebulizes the reagent and flow stream into aerosols, ionizes the reagent aerosol, combines the aerosols into an ionized analyte aerosol, and outputs the ionized analyte aerosol towards a mass spectrometer. The ionized analyte aerosol is formed at high flow rates and with effective reagent mixing, thereby minimizing flow stream aberrations and substantially improving signal sensitivity and selectivity in the mass spectrometer. Contact, mixing, and charge transfer between analyte and reagent particles is positively impacted in an aerosol format, thereby improving reagent mixing efficiency and producing a suitably ionized analyte aerosol at high flow rate. A plurality of nebulizers are used to provide the analyte and ionized reagent aerosols at high flow rate.