Patent Application: US-96294501-A

Abstract:
in an arrangement for producing a directional and cooled gas jet in an ion source with a gas inlet or a uv / fluorescence detection cell including a gas inlet , wherein a capillary extends with one end into the interior of the ion source which is evacuated , the one end is provided with a nozzle for discharging a gas sample into the ion source while being subjected to adiabatic cooling and the width of the nozzle opening is at most 40 % of the inner diameter of the capillary and the capillary is heatable for preventing condensation of gas sample components in the nozzle .

Description:
below two exemplary applications for the gas inlet according to the invention will be described . the first example concerns the application in an ion source for a mass spectrometer ; the second example concerns the application in a fluorescence cell . the capillary shown in fig1 a - 1d and in fig2 serves for the admission of gas . it typically has an inner diameter of 0 . 05 - 10 mm . at its end , the capillary 1 has a restriction with a typical inner minimum diameter of 1 - 50 % of the inner capillary diameter , which , below , will be called a nozzle 2 . the capillary 1 is connected with its end opposite the nozzle 2 to a sample gas supply in a gas - tight manner , wherein the gas supply extends into the mass spectrometer by way of a vacuum seal . alternatively , the end of the capillary 1 remote from the nozzle 2 may extend directly out of the vacuum chamber of the mass spectrometer for example by way of an o - ring seal ( for example , with kalrez ® o - rings ). the nozzle 2 is disposed within , or close to , the ion source of the mass spectrometer and has mainly two purposes : it acts as a restrictor in order to reduce the flow through the capillary 1 and to maintain in this way a good vacuum in the analysis apparatus . in addition , a supersonic molecular jet 4 is formed by the expansion into the vacuum , wherein the molecules are subjected to an adiabatic cooling . fig1 a - 1d show four different configurations for such a nozzle 2 . in the embodiment of fig1 a , the capillary 1 is closed off by a disc provided with a bore to form the nozzle 2 . this embodiment is suitable for all materials ( glass , ceramics , quartz ) for the capillary 1 , but it is particularly suitable for metal capillaries 1 , which may be de - activated at the inside . as metal stainless steel is particularly suitable . in this case , silanization of the metal surface is particularly suitable for deactivation . commercially , such steel capillaries which have been made inert are available for example as silicosteel ®. as disc , for example , a saphir disc may be used . the disc is mounted for example by way of a clamping sleeve 3 or by mineral cement . the embodiments of fig1 b , c and d relate to nozzles 2 , which were obtained by melting and eventually mechanical fine - cutting or grinding of one end of the capillary 1 . in this case , the capillary 1 and the nozzle 2 consist of the same material , for example , quartz or glass . with capillaries 1 of metal or ceramic material , a piece of quartz or glass must be attached if a nozzle 2 of the type as shown in fig1 b , 1 c or 1 d is to be used . the connection between capillary and nozzle can be made by a clamping sleeve 3 or by mineral cement . alternatively , the nozzle 2 may be fused into the capillary 1 . the manufacture of the embodiment of fig1 b is described in [ 8 ]. the embodiments of fig1 c and d may be produced by carefully fusing the capillary 1 of glass or quartz with a micro - nozzle burner . the smooth inner surface of the embodiments of fig1 b , c and d is probably the reason for the high quality ( that is , cooling properties ) observed for the molecular jet 4 generated therewith . it is important that the pressure drop occurs essentially in the nozzle 2 in contrast to the effusive inlets by way of capillary restrictors . for the application in an ion source , the capillary 1 is generally coated on the outside with a conductive material or is disposed within a thin metal tube through which a current can be conducted . the use of a de - activated steel ( silico steel ®) is advantageous for this purpose . steel capillaries 1 may also be directly electrically heated ( resistance heating ) for such an application , it is advantageous if the capillary 1 is of narrow design since , in this way , the withdrawal fields of the ion optics are subjected to less disturbances . furthermore , an electrically conductive coating / envelope of the capillary 1 is required in order to adapt the electrical potential of the capillary 1 to the potential distribution in the ion source . for analytical purposes , the capillary should preferably consist of quartz glass , which is deactivated on the inside in order to avoid memory effects . ceramics and glass are also suitable materials . the open width of the nozzle should not be more than 50 % of the inner diameter of the capillary . better suitable are capillaries with a nozzle opening of 20 % of the inner diameter of the capillary . the nozzle can be formed by melting or by melting and subsequent grinding of the end of the capillary . it is furthermore important that the capillary 1 is well heated up to its tip . because of the small opening of the nozzle 2 , there is the danger of clogging if sample components are condensed . in addition to resistance heating by means of electrically conductive enclosures or coatings or by optical heating via ir radiation , the capillary may also be enclosed in a thermally conductive enclosure which is heated outside of the confinements of the ion source and provides for heat transfer to the nozzle 2 . the capillary may also be heated by providing particular resistance coatings . an elegant variant is the irradiation of the capillary 1 with ir radiation , for example , by a heating element or a laser diode . in this way , the especially critical nozzle region can be very well heated . the operation of the gas inlet according to the invention in an ion source of a travel time mass spectrometer will be described below . the narrowed end ( nozzle 2 ) of the capillary 1 extends into the vacuum of the ion source of a mass spectrometer . the capillary consists of quartz glass and has an inner diameter of 530 μm . it is provided with a nozzle 2 of the embodiment shown in fig1 b with an inner diameter of 65 ± 10 μm . the end of the capillary 1 with the nozzle 2 , is guided in a thin hollow steel needle of about 3 cm length ( for example , a cut injection needle ), so that the tip of the nozzle 2 projects some 10 μm beyond the end edge of the steel needle . the steel needle is connected to a metal block , which is heatable by heating elements . in addition , a certain electrical potential can be applied to the needle . the analysis gas can be admitted by way of the end of the capillary 1 , which extends from the vacuum housing . the capillary is sealed airtight to the housing by a graphite compression seal . the nozzle forms a gas jet in the vacuum and acts as a restrictor so that the flow through the capillary is only about 10 ml / min at 1 bar and good vacuum conditions of about 10 − 4 mbar are maintained in the ion source . the expansion , by way of the restriction , leads to the formation of a continuous supersonic molecular jet 4 with adiabatic cooling of the sample molecules . this adiabatic cooling is important for example for applications for increasing the selectivity of resonance - amplified multi - photon ionization mass spectrometry ( rempi - tofms ). the capillary 1 extends in this case between the openings 5 of the ion source of the mass spectrometer . the capillary 1 with the nozzle 2 may terminate in the center of the ion source of the mass spectrometer . this is advantageous since the ionization for example by a laser beam 6 may occurs directly below or closely ( for example , 1 - 30 mm ) below the opening of the nozzle 2 . the ions 7 formed in this way are withdrawn , by withdrawal apertures 5 , into the travel time mass spectrometer for mass analysis . since the density of the supersonic molecular jet 4 becomes lower in the vacuum with the square of the distance from the nozzle opening , the ionization directly below the nozzle 2 results in a substantial increase in the sensitivity . the degree of cooling also depends on the distance form the nozzle 2 [ 4 ]. typically , an optimal cooling can be achieved with a distance of 20 nozzle diameters below , that is , in front of , the opening of the nozzle 2 . furthermore , directly below the nozzle 2 ion - molecule reactions may occur [ 4 ]. since the nozzle diameter of the nozzle 2 is very small ( typically 0 . 1 - 200 μm ) an optimal cooling can be achieved already at a distance of 2 - 400 μm . furthermore , from such a distance on , a collision - free regime can be assumed ( that is no ion - molecule reactions take place , which could reduce the selectivity ). the ionization close to the nozzle 2 provides for a cover of the supersonic molecular jet 4 in its full width by the laser . at a speed of the supersonic molecular jet 4 of about 500 m / sec and a line - like laser profile of , for example , 4 mm × 10 mm with a pulse rate of 50 hz , with an ionization directly below the nozzle 2 , a duty cycle of 10 − 3 is achieved ( that is , each thousandth molecule in the supersonic molecular jet 4 is reached by the laser ). fig2 shows schematically the arrangement of the capillary 1 with the nozzle 2 between the diaphragms of the travel time mass spectrometer . fig3 shows a rempi spectrum , which was recorded with the arrangement shown in fig2 . the rempi spectrum of fig3 shows a rotation contour of benzene . from the spectrum a rotation temperature of 4 k can be derived . this shows that very good properties of the supersonic molecular jet 4 can be achieved even with gas flows of less than 10 ml / min . the rempi - tofms laser mass spectrometer with the gas inlet according to the invention may be used for example for field applications , for example , for the analysis of process gases . in comparison with the state of the art for such an application [ 7 ], the gas inlet according to the invention has the advantage of increased selectivity by the cooling of the gas jet , of low expenditures and of simple handling . the operation of a gas inlet according to the invention in a fluorescence cell is even more simple since no consideration has to be given to the requirements of an ion lens as it is the case with an ion source for a mass spectrometer . the capillary 1 can therefore easily be provided with heating elements . it is for example possible to wind a heating wire around the capillary 1 . furthermore , there are less requirements for the vacuum system so that a highly compact and inexpensive vacuum cell , for example for field applications of the laser induced fluorescence detection ( lif ) can be constructed . the fluorescence can be recorded in a wavelength disperged ( for example , with an echelle - spectrograph and ccd detector ) or an integral manner . if the excitation wavelength is in resonance , the excitation spectra can be recorded . an excitation spectrum recorded in a diperged manner is a two - dimensional spectrum ( fluorescence signal as a function of the excitation and emission wavelength ). as a further analytical dimension , the fadeout time of the fluorescence can be used since different compounds have different fluorescence lifetimes . the combination of a small vacuum chamber with an inlet according to the invention , an excitation laser and a fluorescence detector represents an ideal ( mobile ) gas analysis system for gas samples which are not excessively complex . the supersonic molecular jet 4 provides for a substantial increase of the selectivity in comparison with an effusive inlet . by utilizing characteristic absorption lines with a tunable narrow band laser ( for example , a compact optical parametric oscillator , opo ) an on - line single compound analysis can be performed . in this procedure , the laser is first tuned to the absorption bands ( ion resonance ) and the lif signal is measured . then the lif signal is determined at one or several wavelength positions where the target substance does not absorb (“ off resonance ”). from the differences of the “ on ” and “ off resonance ” signals the concentration of the target substance can be determined . for relatively inexpensive process analysis with the aim to determine on - line for example a sum parameter for the fluorescent aromatics , the use of a single wavelength of for example the fourth harmonic of the nd : yag laser ( 266 nm ) may be reasonable . the gas inlet according to the invention may also be used for a relatively inexpensive aromatic selective lif detector for the gas chromatography . in the hplc analysis of pak , fluorescence detection for example represents the state of the art . the utilization of the gas inlet according to the invention for a compact vacuum cell for the lif detection would consequently provide in the gas chromatography for a detector with properties comparable to those of a hplc fluorescence analysis but with higher selectivity and higher sensitivity . the selectivity can furthermore be adjusted by the selection of the excitation location in the supersonic molecular jet 4 . directly below the nozzle 2 the adiabatic cooling of the supersonic molecular jet 4 is not yet established . the selectivity is here relatively small . further below the nozzle 2 , the selectivity is very high because the cooling of the gas jet 4 has taken hold . the high focus of the supersonic molecular jet 4 exiting the nozzle 2 increases the sensitivity in comparison with an effusive inlet arrangement . employing two or more wavelengths furthermore permits a discrimination between aromatics with a small and a large π system . with 266 nm ( nd : yag ) or 248 nm ( krf - eximer ) small aromatics such as benzene , toluene and xylol ( btx ) or phenols as well as larger polycyclic aromatics ( pak ) can be excited to fluorescence . with longer wave uv light , for example , 355 nm ( third harmonic frequency of the nd : yag laser ) btx and comparably small aromatics are not excited whereas many larger pak can be detected at this wavelength in a very efficient manner by way of lif . various shapes ( 1 a to 1 d ) of the nozzle 2 for the capillary 1 are shown . if a disc with a bore is used as the nozzle 2 as is shown in fig1 a , the disc may either be cemented to the capillary or it may be attached by a clamping sleeve 3 . the nozzle as shown in fig1 b can be made by melting to close the tip and carefully grinding the tip to re - open the nozzle . the nozzle as shown in fig1 c is a laval nozzle and can be formed by a careful localized melting . the nozzle shown in fig1 d can be made in a similar way . this figure shows a possible arrangement of the gas inlet according to the invention in an ion source of a mass spectrometer with rempi ionization by laser pulses 6 . the capillary 1 extends between the withdrawal diaphragms 5 of the ion source . the laser beam 6 is directed into the continuous supersonic molecular jet formed in an area as close as possible to the nozzle 2 . the ions formed are accelerated by the electric fields along the path 7 into the mass spectrometer for mass analysis . the supersonic molecular jet 4 is directed directly toward a vacuum pump . not shown are the heating elements and the conductive envelope / coating of the capillary 1 as well as the transition to the vacuum with the seals . here the rempi spectrum of the v6 in the first excited singulette state of benzene recorded with the gas inlet according to the invention is represented . argon with several 10 % parts of benzene ( 1 bar ) was expanded through the capillary 1 and the nozzle 2 of the form as shown in fig1 b into the ion source of a rempi tofms mass spectrometer . the free nozzle diameter employed herein was about 65 μm with a capillary diameter of 530 μm . the gas flow rate was 9 . 4 ml / min , the pressure in the ion source was 5 × 10 − 4 mbar . the spectrum shows the rotation contour of the v6 . from the rotation contour , the rotation temperature can be determined at about 4 k [ 9 ]. this excellent rotation cooling shows that the gas inlet according to the invention provides for the generation of a continuous supersonic molecular jet 4 with good properties for analytical applications . a ) r . tembreull , c . h . sin , p . li , h . m . pang , d . m . lubman ; anal . chem . 57 ( 19985 ) 1186 ; b ) r . zimmermann , u . boesl , c . weickhardt , d . lenoir , k . - 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