Atmospheric pressure ion interface for a mass analyzer
AssigneeCornell Research Foundation, Inc.
InventorsAlex Mordehai, Gerard Hopfgartner, John D. Henion
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Abstract
A novel atmospheric pressure ionization device for the transport of charged particle produced by at atmospheric pressure to a mass analyzer includes a liquid shield between the particle source and the sample inlet into the mass analyzer. The liquid shield may be in the form of a disk with a central aperture and acts as a spray splitter and aerofocusing device which increases the flow rate of a liquid sample into the analyzer. The mass analyzer is located in a high vacuum region and an intermediate low vacuum region is provided between the sample inlet and the analyzer. An ion optical system includes electrostatic lens assemblies in said vacuum regions for transporting charged particles from the inlet to the analyzer.
Claims38
An atmospheric pressure ion sampling device, comprising:
- a housing having a sampling inlet means;
- means producing an interface vacuum region and an analyzer vacuum region within said housing;
- means adjacent said housing for producing at atmospheric pressure charged particles including ions to be sampled;
- liquid shield means interposed between said sampling inlet means and said means producing charged particles and having an aperture aligned with an orifice in said sampling inlet means;
- means accelerating said charged particles and ions toward said shield means and transporting selected particles and ions through said aperture and said sampling inlet orifice into said interface vacuum region;
- and
- means transporting said selected ions from said interface vacuum region to said analyzer vacuum region.
An ion trap sampling device, comprising:
- vacuum chamber means;
- an inlet sampling nozzle for said vacuum chamber;
- an outlet from said vacuum chamber;
- and
- liquid shield means spaced from said inlet nozzle for directing ions at atmospheric pressure from an ion spray source to said sampling nozzle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.