A diagnostic for quantifying secondary species emission from electrospray devices

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Analytical Chemistry
• Materials Science

Background:

• Electrospray devices produce charged species beams critical for various applications.
• Accurate current measurement is essential for understanding electrospray performance.
• Secondary species emission (SSE) introduces significant uncertainty in current measurements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel probe and analysis method for distinguishing primary species current from positive and negative secondary species emission (SSE).
• To mitigate measurement uncertainty in charged species beam characterization.
• To obtain accurate SSE yield measurements and corrected primary current values.

Main Methods:

• A specialized probe design to differentiate current contributions from primary species and SSE.
• Analysis techniques to separate positive SSE, negative SSE, and primary species currents.
• Experimental validation using an ionic liquid electrospray in droplet emission mode.

Main Results:

• The developed method successfully distinguishes current contributions from primary species and both positive and negative SSE.
• Quantified angular distributions of positive and negative SSE yields for an ionic liquid electrospray.
• Provided corrected primary current measurements, reflecting true primary beam characteristics.

Conclusions:

• The probe and analysis techniques effectively reduce uncertainty in electrospray current measurements.
• Accurate SSE yield data can be obtained, crucial for optimizing electrospray performance.
• This method offers a pathway to more reliable characterization of charged particle beams.