Patent ID: 7439498

Claim:
An apparatus for separation of analyte ions from atomic or molecular isobar ions, comprising: a) a housing having an inlet and outlet, the inlet being for receiving a beam of ions; b) ion energy reducing means located downstream of said inlet in said housing for reducing an ion beam kinetic energy of said beam of ions passing there through to pre-selected kinetic energies; and c) a reaction cell located downstream of said energy reducing means, said reaction cell having an entrance for receiving said beam of ions, and an exit out which the beam of ions exits, said reaction cell containing a reactive gas chosen to selectively separate analytes from their isobaric interferences, by one of i) reacting said isobars present in the ion beam thereby depleting the isobars with respect to the analyte ions in the ion beam and ii) by reacting said analytes thereby shifting their mass-to-charge to a value away from a mass-to-charge value of said isobar.