Electrospray Ion Trap Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry

A novel combination of techniques is proposed as a mass detector for biological compounds.A quadruple ion trap is used as a storage device for ions introduced from an Electrospray ionizationsource, thereby providing 100% duty cycle, while a reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometer is usedfor the rapid and highly sensitive mass analysis of ion bunches expelled from the ion trap on asub-second time frame. This instrument would be ideally suited as a high sensitivity detector for variousseparations systems. Its ability to effectively mediate samples between a continuous ion source and apulsed mass analyzer without requiring expensive detection electronics would be a performancebreakthrough, providing an important analytical method in a potentially inexpensive MS package. Sucha hybrid instrument would have the capability of providing highly accurate molecular weight andstructural information for a wide variety of biological compounds, while at the same time possessingsensitivity characteristics currently unattainable on either dispersive or even other time-of-flightplatforms. A low cost, modular approach will be used to demonstrate this technology on an existingElectrospray TOF instrument, optimizing sensitivity and mass resolution by using a gridless ion mirror.A minimal control strategy will be adopted to remove operational complexity and afford access tonon-MS Arts with a wide variety of analytical backgrounds.