Method and device to increase the internal energy of ions in mass spectrometers

US9324548B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Bruker Daltonik GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Thorsten Benter · Haan, DE
• Sonja Klee · Wuppertal, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: May 8, 2014
• Grant date: Apr 26, 2016
• Expiry date: May 8, 2034

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H05K1/189
• WIPO field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method and a device increases (e.g., uniformly) the internal energy of ions, in order to remove water shells or adducts, to decompose clusters or molecular agglomerations, to unfold large folded ions, or to prepare ions for fragmentation with high yield. The ions can be heated at a gas pressure of a few hectopascal viscously dragged through a tube comprising on-axis RF fields with strong axial field components. The ions are introduced, as usual together with entraining gas, into a vacuum system of a mass spectrometer through a small hole or capillary, and are driven by the gas flow through the tube with the RF fields. The RF fields decelerate and re-accelerate the ions, which travel through the tube, in rapid succession mainly in forward and backward direction, thus causing high numbers of collisions with the gas molecules and heating up the ions in a uniform manner.