Open AccessA Mass-Selective Variable-Temperature Drift Tube Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometer for Temperature Dependent Ion Mobility Studies
Author(s) -
Jody C. May,
David H. Russell
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of the american society for mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.961
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1879-1123
pISSN - 1044-0305
DOI - 10.1007/s13361-011-0148-2
Subject(s) - chemistry , ion mobility spectrometry , ion , mass spectrometry , drift tube , analytical chemistry (journal) , ion mobility spectrometry–mass spectrometry , chromatography , selected reaction monitoring , tandem mass spectrometry , organic chemistry
A hybrid ion mobility-mass spectrometer (IM-MS) incorporating a variable-temperature (80-400 K) drift tube is presented. The instrument utilizes an electron ionization (EI) source for fundamental small molecule studies. Ions are transferred to the IM-MS analyzer stages through a quadrupole, which can operate in either broad transmission or mass-selective mode. Ion beam modulation for the ion mobility experiment is accomplished by an electronic shutter gate. The variable-temperature ion mobility spectrometer consists of a 30.2 cm uniform field drift tube enclosed within a thermal envelope. Subambient temperatures down to 80 K are achievable through cryogenic cooling with liquid nitrogen, while elevated temperatures can be accessed through resistive heating of the envelope. Mobility separated ions are mass analyzed by an orthogonal time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer. This report describes the technological considerations for operating the instrument at variable temperature, and preliminary results are presented for IM-MS analysis of several small mass ions. Specifically, mobility separations of benzene fragment ions generated by EI are used to illustrate significantly improved (greater than 50%) ion mobility resolution at low temperatures resulting from decreased diffusional broadening. Preliminary results on the separation of long-lived electronic states of Ti(+) formed by EI of TiCl(4) and hydration reactions of Ti(+) with residual water are presented.