Design and Performance of a Soft-Landing Instrument for Fragment Ion Deposition

We report the development of a new high-flux electrospray ionization-based instrument for soft landing of mass-selected fragment ions onto surfaces. Collision-induced dissociation is performed in a collision cell positioned after the dual electrodynamic ion funnel assembly. The high duty cycle of the instrument enables high-coverage deposition of mass-selected fragment ions onto surfaces at a defined kinetic energy. This capability facilitates the investigation of the reactivity of gaseous fragment ions in the condensed phase. We demonstrate that the observed reactions of deposited fragment ions are dependent on the structure of the ion and the composition of either ionic or neutral species codeposited onto a surface. The newly developed instrument provides access to high-purity ion fragments as building blocks for the preparation of unique ionic layers.