Ion Mobility - Mass Spectrometry Rapid Imaging of Special Nuclear Materials

Mass spectrometry is a powerful materials analysis tool in wide use. A second “dimension” of separation is possible by using a technique known as ion mobility prior to mass separation. Ion mobility depends on the cross section of an atom, molecule or cluster rather than its mass. The combination of these techniques is known as ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS). IM-MS may be useful for the analyses of “special nuclear materials”, SNM, which are designated as having potential for nuclear proliferation. To make it applicable, we need to take existing instrument technology from Ionwerks and improve its speed and resolution. The work proposed will improve the resolution of IM-MS by a factor of 20, and the speed by a factor of 400. The data rates that results from these factors goes beyond 4K video rates and will require careful consideration of compression technologies. Should we be successful, it will be possible to measure pieces of SNM in just a few hours and have a map of types of pollen in these pieces. This information would help investigate the source and trail of interdicted SNM pieces and have other applications relevant to national nuclear security. We have requested funds to modify an existing instrument with techniques in development at Robot Nose Corporation. The ultimate outcome is expected to be a new instrument with the above much higher performance that can go into commercial production. With the faster speed and unique separation capability, we expect to find a market with a wide range of applications in materials and biological sample imaging.