ELECTROSPRAY IONIZATION SOURCE--ION MOBILITY ANALYSIS

AN ELECTROSPRAY IONIZATION (ESPI) SOURCE WILL BE INTERFACED WITH AN ION MOBILITY ANALYZER (IMA), AND PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS WILL BE STUDIED. TO ESTABLISH THE POTENTIALFOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF THIS SYSTEM, DETECTION SENSITIVITY LIMITS WILL BE DETERMINED FOR A RANGE OF SAMPLE TYPES. IN ADDITION, THE UPPER MASS RANGE LIMITATIONS OF THE ESPI SOURCE WILL BE EXPLORED, AND ION MOBILITY SPECTRA OF LARGE MACRO-IONS WILL BE STUDIED. OPTIMIZATION OF THE OVERALL INSTRUMENT HARDWARE AND OPERATING PARAMETERS WILL BE DIVIDED INTO FOUR MAJOR TASKS. THE FIRST WILL BE TO OPTIMIZE THE ELECTROSPRAY REGION; SECOND, TO REDESIGN THE PRESENT ESPI/IMA TO ACCOMMODATE THE NECESSARY CHANGES; THIRD, TO OPTIMIZE THE IMA PERFORMANCE USING THE REDESIGNED HARDWARE; AND, FOURTH, TO STUDY THE UPPER MASS LIMIT OF THE ESPI SOURCE. WITH HIGH ENOUGH SENSITIVITY, THE INITIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATION OF THE ESPI/IMA CAN BE USED AS A DETECTOR SYSTEM FOR LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY OR ZONE CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS. USED AS APREFILTER SAMPLE INTRODUCTION ION SOURCE, IT CAN ALSO BE INTERFACED TO A MASS SPECTROMETER ANALYZER.