Differential mobility spectrometer and analysis method

Abstract

An apparatus (1) including: a differential mobility separation, DMS, device (11) comprising: a set of mutually spaced apart electrodes (111), including a first electrode (111A) and a second electrode (111B) having a region R therebetween; a DC power supply (112) (not shown) configured to apply respective DC potentials to the set of electrodes (111) to provide an electric field E in the region R; a gas G source arranged to provide a flow F of gas G in the region R transverse, preferably orthogonal, to the electric field E; and an ion inlet (113) disposed to introduce ions I into the region R, wherein the ions I are mutually spatially separated in the flow F of the gas G according to their respective differential gas phase ion mobilities by the electric field E and wherein the mutually spatially separated ions S are correspondingly deposited on the first electrode (111A) as respective mutually spatially separated analytes A; and wherein the DMS device (11) comprises an interface (114) to an analyser (115) for analysis of the mutually spatially separated analytes A deposited on the first electrode (111A).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.