Chemical ionization mass spectrometry using carbon nanotube field emission electron sources.

A novel chemical ionization (CI) source has been developed based on a carbon nanotube (CNT) field emission electron source. The CNT-based electron source was evaluated and compared with a standard filament thermionic electron source in a commercial explosives trace detection desktop mass spectrometer. This work demonstrates the first reported use of a CNT-based ion source capable of collecting CI mass spectra. Both positive and negative modes were investigated. Spectra were collected for a standard mass spectrometer calibration compound, perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA), as well as trace explosives including trinitrotoluene (TNT), Research Department explosive (RDX), and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). The electrical characteristics, lifetime at operating pressure, and power requirements of the CNT-based electron source are reported. The CNT field emission electron sources demonstrated an average lifetime of 320 h when operated in constant emission mode under elevated CI pressures. The ability of the CNT field emission source to cycle on and off can provide enhanced lifetime and reduced power consumption without sacrificing performance and detection capabilities. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

Compressive mass analysis on quadrupole ion trap systems.

Conventionally, quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometers eject ions of different mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) in a sequential fashion by performing a scan of the rf trapping voltage amplitude. Due to the inherent sparsity of most mass spectra, the detector measures no signal for much of the scan time. By exploiting this sparsity property, we propose a new compressive and multiplexed mass analysis approach--multi Resonant Frequency Excitation (mRFE) ejection. This new approach divides the mass spectrum into several mass subranges and detects all the subrange spectra in parallel for increased mass analysis speed. Mathematical estimation of standard mass spectrum is demonstrated while statistical classification on the parallel measurements remains viable because of the sparse nature of the mass spectra. This method can reduce mass analysis time by a factor of 3-6 and increase system duty cycle by 2×. The combination of reduced analysis time and accurate compound classification is demonstrated in a commercial quadrupole ion trap (QIT) system.