Apparatus for analyzing liquid samples with a mass spectrometer
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsAttilio Melera, Armand Neukermans
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatus is provided for analyzing liquid samples by a mass spectrometer. A stream of liquid droplets of the sample is formed by a probe which expels the droplets into a desolvation chamber. The droplets are evaporated in the desolvation chamber and the evaporated materials injected into the source region of the mass spectrometer. In some preferred embodiments, the system is configured so that no solvent or solute is pumped out of the desolvation chamber during transit; discrimination against highly volatile materials is thereby prevented. The apparatus may be used as an interface between a liquid chromatograph and the mass spectrometer.
Claims14
Apparatus for introducing a liquid solution of a solute dissolved in a solvent into the source region of a mass spectrometer, comprising:
- probe means for forming a stream of liquid droplets of said solution and expelling said stream from said probe means;
- vaporization means positioned between said probe means and the source region of said mass spectrometer for evaporating the solute and solvent in said droplets after said droplets have been expelled from said probe means, and directing at least some of the evaporated materials into said source region of the mass specctrometer;
- and
- temperature control means for maintaining the temperature in said probe means below the boiling point of said liquid solution in said probe means, to insure that said solution does not evaporate in or near said probe means and thereby plug said probe means.
Apparatus for introducing a liquid solution of a solute dissolved in a solvent into the source region of a mass spectrometer, comprising
- probe means for forming a stream of liquid droplets of said solution;
- and
- temperature control means for maintaining the temperature in said probe means below the boiling point of said solution in said probe means to insure that said solution does not evaporate in or near said probe means and thereby plug said probe means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.