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Interleaved Distance-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry: A Simple Method to Improve the Instrument Duty Factor

  • Research Article
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Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Distance-of-flight mass spectrometry (DOFMS) is a velocity-based, spatially dispersive MS technique in which ions are detected simultaneously along the plane of a spatially selective detector. In DOFMS, ions fly though the instrument and mass separate over a set period of time. The single flight time at which all ions are measured defines the specific m/z values that are detectable; the range of m/z values is dictated by the length of the spatially selective detector. However, because each packet of ions is detected at a single flight time, multiple groups of ions can fly through the instrument concurrently and be detected at a single detector. In this way, DOFMS experiments can be interleaved to perform several mass separation experiments within a single DOF repetition period. Interleaved operation allows the orthogonal acceleration region to be operated at a repetition rate higher than the reciprocal of the flight time, which improves the duty factor of the technique. In this paper, we consider the fundamental parameters of interleaved DOFMS and report first results.

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Acknowledgments

A.G.-G. thanks the Division of Analytical Chemistry (DAC) of the American Chemistry Society and Agilent Technologies for a DAC graduate-research fellowship. This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation through grant DBI‐1062846 and performed in collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, operated for the US DOE by Battelle Memorial Institute under Contract DE-AC06-76RLO-1830op. Partial salary support was provided by the US Department of Energy through grant DE‐FG02‐09ER14980.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Alexander Gundlach-Graham, Elise A. Dennis, Steven J. Ray & Gary M. Hieftje

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

    Christie G. Enke

  3. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, 99352, USA

    Charles J. Barinaga & David W. Koppenaal

Authors
  1. Alexander Gundlach-Graham
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  2. Elise A. Dennis
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  3. Steven J. Ray
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  4. Christie G. Enke
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  5. Charles J. Barinaga
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  6. David W. Koppenaal
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  7. Gary M. Hieftje
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Correspondence to Gary M. Hieftje.

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Gundlach-Graham, A., Dennis, E.A., Ray, S.J. et al. Interleaved Distance-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry: A Simple Method to Improve the Instrument Duty Factor. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 24, 1736–1744 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13361-013-0718-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13361-013-0718-6

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