Sources of polyatomic ions of organic liquids

We have developed two types of liquid ion sources, one of which was a polyatomic ion source using liquid organic materials with a high-vapor pressure. Liquid materials such as octane and ethanol could be heated up to a maximum temperature of 100 degrees C, and the vapors were introduced into an ion source. They were ionized by an electron bombardment method and extracted from the ionizer. The ion current obtained at an extraction voltage of 2 kV was 230 microA for octane and several fragment ions such as alkyl ions were produced. On the other hand, another type of polyatomic ion source using alkyl naphthalene mixed with ionic liquid such as imidazolium dicyanamide has been developed. Instead of the electron bombardment method, a high-electric field method was used for the ion-emission from a sharp tip, because the vapor pressure of the liquid materials was relatively low. The threshold voltage was approximately 4.5 kV and the ion current of approximately 250 nA was obtained at an extraction voltage of 9.5 kV.