NSF Award
9705341
This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase 11 project will further refine the concepts from the phase I results that established the feasibility of capillary electrophoresis/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CE/TOFMS). TOFMS potentially provides nearly ideal detection capability for CE because it combines high sensitivity, and high scan speed, with the ability (when used with electrospray ionization) to detect ionized solution phase compounds typical of many biological and environmental samples. Our research objectives for the phase 11 project include: (1) development, implementation, and testing of the next generation high speed data acquisition system; (2) construction and testing of a 50 cm `inverted perfectron` TOFMS; (3) refinement of the electrospray ion source and the interface between the ion source and the TOFMS; and (4) further development of capillary column technology for CE. These refinements are based on new concepts and experimental results generated in phase I and are aimed at improving performance and reliability and increasing the cost effectiveness of CE/TOFMS. They will culminate in a prototype instrument very similar to one that could be introduced as a commercial product. To date no publications have resulted from this work. We plan to publish results in the future. Two inventions were developed during the course of this work. One deals with the transport of ions through the differentially pumped interface connecting the mass spectrometer to the electrospray ion source. The second is a new type of data acquisition system. The art of both inventions will be taught in patents we will file. We anticipate describing the them in scientific presentations and papers as well. It is also our plan to make the inventions available as part of a commercial TOFMS when the technology has matured sufficiently for a product introduction.
