一种微型FAIMS传感器芯片的研制

基于微机电系统(MEMS)技术,研制了一种微型高场非对称波形离子迁移谱(FAIMS)传感器芯片.芯片尺寸为18.8mm×12.4mm×1.2mm,由离子化区、迁移区、离子检测区组成.采用真空紫外灯离子源在大气压环境下对样品进行离子化,经过离子化区中聚焦电极的电场作用,实现离子在进入迁移区之前的聚焦,提高离子信号的强度.通过在上下玻璃上溅射Au/Cr(300nm/30nm)金属,并与厚度为200μm、采用感应耦合等离子体(ICP)工艺刻蚀的硅片键合,形成迁移区的矩形通道,尺寸为10mm×5mm×0.2mm.离子检测区为三排直径200μm、间距100μm交错排列的圆柱阵列式微法拉第筒,能同时检测正负离子.采用频率为2MHz,最大电压为364V,占空比为30%的高场非对称方波电压进行FAIMS芯片实验.以丙酮和甲苯为实验样品,载气流速80L·h-1,补偿电压从-10V到3V以0.1V的步长进行扫描,得到了丙酮和甲苯的FAIMS谱图,验证了FAIMS芯片的性能.丙酮和甲苯的FAIMS-MS实验进一步表明FAIMS系统实现了离子分离和过滤功能.     

用高场非对称波形离子迁移谱技术快速检测二乙醇胺

采用高场非对称波形离子迁移谱(FAIMS)对二乙醇胺(DEA)进行快速检测分析, 以热解析法进样, 确定了二乙醇胺的离子特征信号, 并与气相色谱-质谱联用仪的检测结果进行了比较. 用聚四氟乙烯(PTFE)扩散管进样, 控制二乙醇胺样品气(DEA与空气的混合气)浓度, 利用FAIMS对不同浓度的二乙醇胺样品气进行检测. 通过对离子特征信号进行量化和重复性分析, 确定了二乙醇胺样品气的检出限为0.02 μg/L, 并建立了FAIMS检测二乙醇胺样品气的离子电流强度积分面积与样品气浓度关系曲线. 为FAIMS应用于现场快速检测二乙醇胺提供了一定的依据.     

射频电场幅值对高场非对称波形离子迁移谱检测对二甲苯的影响

高场非对称波形离子迁移谱(FAIMS)是一种利用非对称电场对气相分子进行分离检测的高灵敏度快速检测技术,超高的非对称波形电场是其迁移区的核心,非对称射频电场的幅值显著影响FAIMS的检测性能.实验以对二甲苯为样品,分析了非对称射频电场幅值对FAIMS检测性能的影响,实验表明随着射频电场幅值增大,检测灵敏度降低而分辨率增...     

常压敞开式质谱离子源发展趋势

近年来常压敞开式离子源凭借快速、原位、实时离子化样品等优势,被广泛应用于样品快速筛查、真伪鉴定、质谱成像等领域,已成为当今离子源的研究热点,受到了学术界及仪器制造、化学和生物分析等相关产业界的广泛关注。目前,该类离子源朝着克服基体效应、提高样品表面定位能力及增加离子传输距离等方向发展。本文主要介绍了可以很好解决上述问题并具有代表性的三种常压敞开式离子源:电喷雾萃取离子源(EESI)、介质阻挡放电离子源(DBDI)及空气动力辅助离子源(AFAI),重点涉及原理以及在此基础上所做的设计改进和应用进展。     

应用高场非对称离子迁移谱技术检测食品接触材料中甲基丙烯酸甲酯的迁移量

应用高场非对称离子迁移谱(FAIMS)技术, 无需经过萃取、 富集等过程, 可直接进样分析甲基丙烯酸甲酯在水基食品模拟物中的迁移量. 通过考察扫描次数、 样品温度、 取样体积、 载气流速和溶剂掺杂对离子特征信号的影响, 确定甲基丙烯酸甲酯的检出限为10 μg/L, 并建立了FAIMS检测甲基丙烯酸甲酯的离子流强度与浓度关系曲线. 该方法操作便捷、 灵敏度高、 分析速度快, 能满足实际工作的要求.     

基于水分掺杂的高场非对称波形离子迁移谱检测硫化氢的研究

高场非对称波形离子迁移谱(FAIMS)是一种芯片级高灵敏度快速分析检测技术,其在大气压环境下工作的特点使之受环境影响明显,其中气体的湿度是显著影响因素,湿度的变化可引起迁移区离子反应机理以及迁移过程的变化。该文研究了干燥条件下痕量硫化氢的定量检测方法,确定了DF=33%时的检测线性范围与回归方程。利用PTFE管渗透作用,设定水浴温度为40～90℃,考察了不同含量水分对FAIMS检测硫化氢的影响。通过考察不同湿度下硫化氢的FAIMS特征谱图以及特征离子峰,研究了掺杂水分对于硫化氢谱峰峰值、补偿电压以及检测分辨率的影响。结果表明,FAIMS对于硫化氢的检测谱图清晰可见,能够准确定位其特征离子峰。随着气体中水分增多,不同分离电场下的产物离子峰峰值增大,说明湿度增大在一定程度上提高了灵敏度,DF=35%时的检出限为1.43×10~(-3) mg/m~3。     

芯片级高场非对称波形离子迁移谱技术检测危险品

建立了吸气法-芯片级高场非对称波形离子迁移谱(FAIMS)技术,设置进样温度为50℃,载气与样品气流量分别为1500和100 mL/min时,测定了10种国家交通部门规定严禁携带的易燃易爆危险品。实验结果表明,利用FAIMS技术可以有效检测多种危险品。实验得到了10种危险品的FAIMS图谱,并对其进行了指纹识别。利用扩散管辅助技术得到10种物质的检测浓度范围约为0.1～20 mg/L。此方法方便快速,灵敏度高,具有很好的应用前景。     

载气流速对高场不对称波形离子迁移谱的影响

载气流速是影响高场不对称波形离子迁移谱(FAIMS)的重要参数.以自制的高场不对称波形离子迁移谱仪为实验平台,在射频电场幅值3 kV/cm,频率500 kHz,占空比0.36的条件下,研究了载气流速对苯离子迁移谱谱峰强度和半峰宽的影响.实验结果表明: 载气流速为3.7 L/min时,苯样品的谱峰强度最大,仪器的灵敏度最高.随着载气流速的增加,谱峰半峰宽变宽,仪器的分辨率下降.载气流速为3 .0～3.7 L/min时仪器综合性能最佳.此结果对于控制迁移谱仪载气流速有重要的参考意义.     

芯片级非对称场离子迁移谱技术检测爆炸物和毒品

本研究使用蒸气法-芯片级非对称场离子迁移谱技术(FAIMS)检测部分爆炸物和毒品。通过14～21d的连续测试得到目标物的扩散速率。在设定条件下,实现了对爆炸物和毒品的良好分析。同时针对FAIMS检测技术开发出了新的数据识别方法,使FAIMS技术以超高的灵敏度完成了对部分爆炸物和毒品的有效分辨,检测浓度范围约为33～100ng/L。该方法无需前处理、方便、快捷,灵敏度高,具有很好的应用前景。     

介质阻挡放电离子源质谱分析

敞开式离子化质谱可对表面样品进行直接快速分析而受到关注,成为质谱分析的热点研究方向.介质阻挡放电离子源是一种基于等离子体放电机理的敞开式离子源,近年来得到了较快的发展.本文着重介绍该离子源的基本原理、性能特征以及应用进展,并对其发展趋势进行了展望.     

Separation of Ions from Volatile Organic Compounds Using High-Field Asymmetric Waveform Ion Mobility Spectrometry-Mass Spectrometer

A combination of high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) with mass spectrometer (MS) was analyzed. FAIMS separates ions from the volatile organic compounds in the gas-phase as an ion-filter for MS. The sample ions were created at ambient pressure by ion source, which was equipped with a 10.6 eV UV discharge lamp (λ=116.5 nm).The drift tube of FAIMS is composed of two parallel planar electrodes and the dimension is 10 mm×8 mm×0.5 mm. FAIMS was investigated when driven by the high-filed rectangular asymmetric waveform with the peak-to-peak voltage of 1.36 kV at the frequency of 1 MHz and the duty cycle of 30%. The acetone, the butanone, and their mixture were adopted to characterize the FAIMS-MS. The mass spectra obtained from MS illustrate that there are ion-molecular reactions between the ions and the sample neutral molecular. And the proton transfer behavior in the mixture of the acetone and the butanone is also observed.With the compensation voltage tuned from -30 V to 10 V with a step size of 0.1 V, the ion pre-separation before MS is realized.     

Negative Corona Discharge Ion Source Under Ambient Conditions with Mini Line-cylinder Electrodes

A novel ambient negative corona discharge ion source with mini line-cylinder electrodes is designed. The diameters of inner and outer electrode are 0.16 and 4 mm respectively. With a special assembly method, a perfect coaxiality of the two electrodes is obtained. An injection system utilizing a temperature control technique, achieves a constant and stable concentration of the sample, which is critical to the experiment. The formulas of the corona onset voltage of line-cylinder electrodes are also introduced. The experiment results show that negative substances such as formic acid and acetic acid can be ionized under ambient conditions. When combined with micro electrical mechanical system fabricationprocess, the volume of the ion source can be reduced dramatically, but there is an undesirable surface discharge. To solve the surface discharge problem, an improved structure was designed and tested. The simplicity of the interface of the ion source makes it suitable for mass spectrometer, micro mass spectrometer, ion mobility spectrometer, and high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometer applications.     

Behaviour of tetraalkylammonium ions in high‐field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry

High‐field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) is an ion‐filtering technique recently adapted for use with liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) to remove interferences during analysis of complex matrices. This is the first systematic study of a series of singly charged tetraalkylammonium ions by FAIMS‐MS. The compensation voltage (CV) is the DC offset of the waveform which permits the ion to emerge from FAIMS and it was determined for each member of the series under various conditions. The electrospray ionization conditions explored included spray voltage, vaporizer temperature, and sheath and auxiliary gas pressure. The FAIMS conditions explored included carrier gas flow rate, electrode temperature and composition of the carrier gas. Optimum desolvation was achieved using sufficient carrier gas (flow rate ≥2 L/min) to ensure stable response. Low‐mass ions (m/z 100–200) are more susceptible to changes in electrode temperature and gas composition than high mass ions (m/z 200–700). As a result of this study, ions are reliably analyzed using standard FAIMS conditions (dispersion voltage ?5000 V, carrier gas flow rate 3 L/min, 50% helium/50%nitrogen, inner electrode temperature 70°C and outer electrode temperature 90°C). Variation of FAIMS conditions may be of great use for the separation of very low mass tetraalkylammonium (TAA) ions from other TAA ions. The FAIMS conditions do not appear to have a major effect on higher mass ions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Characterization of a temperature-Controlled FAIMS system

High-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) focuses and separates gas-phase analyte ions from chemical background, offering substantial improvements in the detection of targeted species in biological matrices. Ion separations have been typically performed at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature, although routine small molecule quantitation by LC-MS (and thus LC-FAIMS-MS) is generally performed at liquid flow rates (e.g., in excess of 200 microL/min) in which atmospheric pressure ionization sources (e.g., APCI and ESI) need to be run at elevated temperatures to enhance ion desolvation. Heat from the ionization source and/or the mass spectrometer capillary interface is shown to have a significant impact on the performance of a conventional FAIMS electrode set. This study introduces a new FAIMS system that uses gas heating/cooling to quickly reach temperature equilibrium independent of the external temperature conditions. A series of equations and balance plots, which look at the effect of temperature and other variables, on the normalized field strength (E/N), are introduced and used to explain experimental observations. Examples where the ion behavior deviates from the predicted behavior are presented and explanations based on clusters or changes in ion-neutral interactions are given. Consequences of the use of temperature control, and in particular advantages of using different temperature settings on the inner and outer electrodes, for the purpose of manipulating ion separation are described.     

Compensation voltage (CV) peak shapes using a domed FAIMS with the inner electrode translated to various longitudinal positions

High-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) separates ions at atmospheric pressure based on the difference in the mobility of an ion in a strong electric field and in a weak electric field. This field-dependent mobility of an ion is reflected in the compensation voltage (CV) at which the ion is transmitted through FAIMS at an applied asymmetric waveform dispersion voltage (DV). In this report, we show that experimental CV peak shapes using dome tipped inner electrode FAIMS prototypes with inner/outer electrode radii of: (1) 0.2/0.4 cm and (2) 0.4/0.6 cm are a function of the longitudinal position of the inner electrode. Varying the longitudinal position of the inner electrode modifies the electric fields between the surfaces of the hemispherical shaped inner electrode and the outer electrode in the vicinity of the ion outlet. In this region the position-dependent electric field strength (E/N) effectively forms a second tandem FAIMS analyzer region having differing ion separation properties. The final tandem FAIMS separation is the intersection of the CV windows of these two differing FAIMS separations and, therefore, the peak width in the CV scan is dependent on the longitudinal tip displacement (LTD) of the inner electrode. CV scans are shown for a LTD range of 0.14 to 0.4 cm. These scans illustrate that it is possible to control the FAIMS resolution (CV/peak width) from about 1 for the 0.2/0.4 cm electrode set at intermediate longitudinal position to over 10 at the narrowest distance between the inner electrode and the ion outlet.     

Ion mobility-mass spectrometry

This review article compares and contrasts various types of ion mobility-mass spectrometers available today and describes their advantages for application to a wide range of analytes. Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), when coupled with mass spectrometry, offers value-added data not possible from mass spectra alone. Separation of isomers, isobars, and conformers; reduction of chemical noise; and measurement of ion size are possible with the addition of ion mobility cells to mass spectrometers. In addition, structurally similar ions and ions of the same charge state can be separated into families of ions which appear along a unique mass-mobility correlation line. This review describes the four methods of ion mobility separation currently used with mass spectrometry. They are (1) drift-time ion mobility spectrometry (DTIMS), (2) aspiration ion mobility spectrometry (AIMS), (3) differential-mobility spectrometry (DMS) which is also called field-asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) and (4) traveling-wave ion mobility spectrometry (TWIMS). DTIMS provides the highest IMS resolving power and is the only IMS method which can directly measure collision cross-sections. AIMS is a low resolution mobility separation method but can monitor ions in a continuous manner. DMS and FAIMS offer continuous-ion monitoring capability as well as orthogonal ion mobility separation in which high-separation selectivity can be achieved. TWIMS is a novel method of IMS with a low resolving power but has good sensitivity and is well intergrated into a commercial mass spectrometer. One hundred and sixty references on ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IMMS) are provided.     

Ion trapping at atmospheric pressure (760 Torr) and room temperature with a high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometer

A method for the confinement of ions at 760 Torr and room temperature is described. We have recently shown that a cylindrical-geometry high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometer (FAIMS), which utilizes an ion separation technique based on the change in ion mobility at high electric fields, focuses ions in two dimensions. This article describes a FAIMS device in which the focusing is extended to three dimensions (i.e. ion trap). Characterization of the ion trap was carried out using a laboratory-constructed time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The half-life of a m/z 380 ion in the trap was determined to be 5 ms.     

Ion mobility spectrometer—field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometer-mass spectrometry

Since the development of electrospray ionization (ESI) for ion mobility spectrometry mass spectrometry (IMMS), IMMS have been extensively applied for characterization of gas-phase bio-molecules. Conventional ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), defined as drift tube IMS (DT-IMS), is typically a stacked ring design that utilizes a low electric field gradient. Field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) is a newer version of IMS, however, the geometry of the system is significantly different than DT-IMS and data are collected using a much higher electric field. Here we report construction of a novel ambient pressure dual gate DT-IMS coupled with a FAIMS system and then coupled to a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer (QITMS) to form a hybrid three-dimensional separation instrument, DT-IMS-FAIMS-QITMS. The DT-IMS was operated at ~3 Townsend (electric field/number density (E/N) or (Td)) and was coupled in series with a FAIMS, operated at ~80 Td. Ions were mobility-selected by the dual gate DT-IMS into the FAIMS and from the FAIMS the ions were detected by the QITMS for as either MS or MSⁿ. The system was evaluated using cocaine as an analytical standard and tested for the application of separating three isomeric tri-peptides: tyrosine-glycine-tryptophan (YGW), tryptophan-glycine-tyrosine (WGY) and tyrosine-tryptophan-glycine (YWG). All three tri-peptides were separated in the DT-IMS dimension and each had one mobility peak. The samples were partially separated in the FAIMS dimension but two conformation peaks were detected for the YWG sample while YGW and WGY produced only one peak. Ion validation was achieved for all three samples using QITMS.     

Spherical FAIMS: comparison of curved electrode geometries

High-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) can operate at atmospheric pressure to separate gas-phase ions on the basis of a difference in the mobility of an ion at high fields relative to its mobility at low field strengths. Several novel cell geometries have been proposed in addition to the commercially available planar and cylindrical designs. Nevertheless, there is still much to explore about three-dimensional (3-D) curved cell geometries (spherical and hemispherical) and comparison to two-dimensional (2-D) curved geometries (cylindrical). The geometry of a FAIMS cell is one of the essential features affecting the transmission, resolution, and resolving power of FAIMS. Electric fields in a spherical design allow advantages such as virtual potential wells that can induce atmospheric-pressure near-trapping conditions and help reduce ion losses. Curvature of electrodes enables the ions to remain focused near the gap median, which help to improve sensitivity and ion trapping at higher pressures. Here we detail the design and characterization of a novel FAIMS cell having spherical electrode geometry and compare it to hemispherical and cylindrical cells. These FAIMS cells were interfaced with a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer in this study. Several structural classes of common explosives were employed to evaluate the separation power of these geometries. FAIMS spectra were generated by scanning the compensation voltage (CV) while operating the mass spectrometer in total ion mode. The identification of ions was accomplished through mass spectra acquired at fixed values of CVs. The performance of FAIMS using cylindrical, hemispherical, and spherical cells was compared and trends identified. For all trials, the best transmission was obtained by the spherical FAIMS cell while hemispherical FAIMS provided the best resolution and resolving power.     

Tandem mass spectra of tryptic peptides at signal-to-background ratios approaching unity using electrospray ionization high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry/hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

High-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) has been coupled to a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer for the tandem mass spectrometric analysis of tryptic peptides of pig hemoglobin. Using FAIMS, low levels (fmol/microL) of multiply charged tryptic peptides were separated from relatively intense chemical background such that their tandem mass spectra (MS/MS) lacked many background-related fragment ions observed using a conventional ESI-QqTOFMS instrument. Substantial improvements in both first-order and tandem mass spectra were realized while maintaining approximately the same absolute intensities.