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Optimized Sealing Process and Real-Time Monitoring of Glass-to-Metal Seal Structures

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Resistive glass IM-TOFMS.

Kimberly Kaplan¹, Stephan Graf, Christian Tanner

¹Department of Chemistry, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164, United States.

Analytical Chemistry

|October 23, 2010

Summary

A new ion mobility mass spectrometer (IM-MS) combines ambient-pressure drift tubes with high-resolution mass spectrometry for enhanced sensitivity and resolving power. This advanced instrument successfully detected metabolites and isomers in human blood.

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Area of Science:

Analytical Chemistry
Spectrometry
Biomarker Discovery

Background:

Ion mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS) is a powerful analytical technique.
Existing IM-MS instruments face challenges in sensitivity and resolving power, especially at ambient pressures.
There is a need for improved instrumentation for complex sample analysis, including biological fluids.

Purpose of the Study:

To present the design and performance of a novel ambient-pressure ion mobility mass spectrometer (IM-MS).
To evaluate the analytical figures of merit of the prototype instrument for standard and complex samples.
To demonstrate the capability of the instrument for metabolite identification in human blood.

Main Methods:

Development of a new IM-MS design featuring an ambient-pressure resistive glass ion mobility drift tube (RGIMS).
Coupling the RGIMS to a high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS) via an enhanced interface with segmented quadrupoles.
Evaluation of instrument performance using standard solutions (e.g., caffeine) and complex biological samples (human blood).

Main Results:

The enhanced interface increased sensitivity while maintaining high resolving power.
A detection limit of 300 nM for caffeine was achieved.
Over 300 tentative metabolites and 80 isomers/isobars were detected in human blood.
High separation power was demonstrated for both IMS (resolving power 85) and MS (mass resolving power 7000).

Conclusions:

The new IM-MS design offers significant improvements in sensitivity and resolving power for ambient-pressure measurements.
The instrument is capable of analyzing complex biological samples, facilitating metabolite and isomer identification.
Developed software enhances instrument control, data evaluation, and visualization for comprehensive analysis.