new SPM platform for heated probe AFM and Mass Spectrometry for nanoscale chemical analysis

Mass Spectrometry (MS) is one of the most widely used analytical techniques for chemical characterization. It is used routinely in a wide variety of industrial and academic laboratories in a wide set of applications such as polymers, pharmaceutics, life sciences, photovoltaics etc. Despite MS being a very powerful chemical analysis technique, when used as the detection system in chemical imaging its spatial resolution is restricted to several tens of microns when used with conventional atmospheric pressure surface sampling methods. On the other hand, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a powerful technique that can be used for nanoscale morphological and physical property measurements but one of its greatest drawbacks is that it has been chemically blind. Our proposal will bridge this divide by implementing and commercializing the combination of AFM with the definitive elemental and molecular characterization capabilities of MS. Our technical approach is to use an AFM thermal probe to desorb nanoscale sample areas which are then collected, ionized and delivered to a MS Inlet. The feasibility of our technical approach for nanoscale chemical imaging was demonstrated during Phase I where 500nm resolution was shown for real world polymer samples. A wide range of scientifically relevant compound classes were thermally desorbed by applying heat to an AFM probe and subsequent mass spectrometric chemical detection. Chemical images of patterned dye printouts, bacteria, mouse brain tissue and phase separated polymer thin films were obtained. A pre-commercial beta version of the AFM-MS product will be developed in Phase II in collaboration with sub-contractor, Dr. Gary Van Berkel, ORNL Distinguished Scientist and Group Leader of ORNLs Organic Mass Spectrometry Group. The goal will be to enable routine multi-modal, nanoscale chemical imaging of real-world samples provided from a number of private and academic research entities. Desorption, transport and ionization of sample material will be further optimized and new designs will implemented for high sample throughput. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: By utilizing nanoscale MS chemical information, we will target specific applications that will have the most commercial impact such as surface blooming of stabilization additives in polymer manufacturing, discovery of better drug delivery and contaminate free packaging materials and the study of biological functions through the analysis of metabolites in tissues and cells. However, we anticipate significant downstream benefits in broad areas of materials, pharmaceutical, and life sciences application areas including but not limited to the development of advanced pharmaceutics, polymer materials, nano-contaminate detection in semiconductors and electronics, organic photovoltaic materials, automotive materials, materials for energy generation/storage, cell biology, and cancer research.