Induced Dual-Nanospray: A Novel Internal Calibration Method for Convenient and Accurate Mass Measurement

Accurate mass information is of great importance in the determination of unknown compounds. An effective and easy-to-control internal mass calibration method will dramatically benefit accurate mass measurement. Here we reported a simple induced dual-nanospray internal calibration device which has the following three advantages: (1) the two sprayers are in the same alternating current field; thus both reference ions and sample ions can be simultaneously generated and recorded. (2) It is very simple and can be easily assembled. Just two metal tubes, two nanosprayers, and an alternating current power supply are included. (3) With the low-flow-rate character and the versatility of nanoESI, this calibration method is capable of calibrating various samples, even untreated complex samples such as urine and other biological samples with small sample volumes. The calibration errors are around 1 ppm in positive ion mode and 3 ppm in negative ion mode with good repeatability. This new internal calibration method opens up new possibilities in the determination of unknown compounds, and it has great potential for the broad applications in biological and chemical analysis.