Performance assessment of a portable mass spectrometer using a linear ion trap operated in non-scanning mode.

Rationale: The desire for mass spectrometer portability provides the motivation for simpler, lighter electronics to deliver switched potentials applied to the electrodes of the linear ion trap operated in non-scanning mode. Using a novel method of modelling and theoretical analysis, we simulate the mass analyser performance under these unfavourable operating conditions.

Methods: The electrical fields are simulated using the Charge Particle Optics software which employs the boundary element method.

Experimental device for dioxin vapour generation: a steady and adjustable source of gaseous 2,3-DCDD.

PCDD/Fs are Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), generated by incomplete combustion of carbonaceous and chlorinated compounds. Because of their toxicity, they have to be monitored at emission, from stationary sources like waste incinerator. In the framework of the development of an on-line analyser, the laboratory prototype requires a gaseous dioxin source.

Sensitivity and amplitude calibration of a Fourier transform 3D quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer.

With a three-dimensional (3D) quadrupole ion trap running in a Fourier transform operating mode, the detected signal is an image of the collective motion of the confined ions. Consequently, it is assumed that the image signal is the sum of the axial trajectories of the simultaneously confined ions. The resulting frequency spectrum after Fourier transformation comprises frequency peaks at the axial secular frequencies of the confined species according to their mass/charge ratio.