Mass Spectrometry Based Miniature Instruments for Environmental and Field Studies

A special issue of Instruments (ISSN 2410-390X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2018) | Viewed by 14495

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Physics, National Dong Hwa University, No. 1, Sec. 2, Da Hsueh Rd., Shoufeng, Hualien 97401, Taiwan
Interests: ion trap; mass spectrometry; analytical instrumentation; method development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mass spectrometric (MS) instruments have gained attention in many fields, including space sciences, proteomics, genomics, forensic sciences, chemistry, biology, and the pharmaceutical industry. Various types of instruments are being developed to fulfill their requirements and most are are related to benchtop-type MS instruments. However, there are increasing needs to develop miniature and portable mass spectrometers for real-time environmental analysis, e.g. contaminations in foods, and missions for planetary and space science. The key for miniature MS instruments is a compact-sized mass analyzer, for example ion trap mass analyzers have been combined with ambient ion sources for the investigation of explosives and drugs; and ion-trap gas chromatography–mass spectrophotometers (GC–MS) takes advantage of the NIST mass spectral library for identification of unknown compounds from electron ionization (EI) spectra and MS/MS spectra, and has become a powerful tool for real-time analysis.

This Special Issue will highlight new developments in miniature MS-based instruments for environmental and field studies. We solicit original research papers, communications and review articles on all aspects of instrument design, analytical methods, ion sources, database development and applications relating to MS techniques. Research papers on state of the art results, techniques or novel approaches are welcomed. Reviews should be an up-to-date, critical overview of the current state of the art in miniature MS instruments. If you wish to discuss preliminary ideas, please feel free to contact us. We look forward to and welcome your participation in this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Wen-Ping Peng
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Miniature MS-based instruments
  • Analytical methods
  • Ion sources
  • Database
  • Real-time environmental analysis

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 14902 KiB  
Article
A Low-Cost, Simplified Platform of Interchangeable, Ambient Ionization Sources for Rapid, Forensic Evidence Screening on Portable Mass Spectrometric Instrumentation
by Patrick W. Fedick, William L. Fatigante, Zachary E. Lawton, Adam E. O’Leary, Seth. E. Hall, Ryan M. Bain, Stephen T. Ayrton, Joseph A. Ludwig and Christopher C. Mulligan
Instruments 2018, 2(2), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/instruments2020005 - 25 Mar 2018
Cited by 32 | Viewed by 7494
Abstract
Portable mass spectrometers (MS) are becoming more prevalent due to improved instrumentation, commercialization, and the robustness of new ionization methodologies. To increase utility towards diverse field-based applications, there is an inherent need for rugged ionization source platforms that are simple, yet robust towards [...] Read more.
Portable mass spectrometers (MS) are becoming more prevalent due to improved instrumentation, commercialization, and the robustness of new ionization methodologies. To increase utility towards diverse field-based applications, there is an inherent need for rugged ionization source platforms that are simple, yet robust towards analytical scenarios that may arise. Ambient ionization methodologies have evolved to target specific real-world problems and fulfill requirements of the analysis at hand. Ambient ionization techniques continue to advance towards higher performance, with specific sources showing variable proficiency depending on application area. To realize the full potential and applicability of ambient ionization methods, a selection of sources may be more prudent, showing a need for a low-cost, flexible ionization source platform. This manuscript describes a centralized system that was developed for portable MS systems that incorporates modular, rapidly-interchangeable ionization sources comprised of low-cost, commercially-available parts. Herein, design considerations are reported for a suite of ambient ionization sources that can be crafted with minimal machining or customization. Representative spectral data is included to demonstrate applicability towards field processing of forensic evidence. While this platform is demonstrated on portable instrumentation, retrofitting to lab-scale MS systems is anticipated. Full article
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9 pages, 2474 KiB  
Article
Mini 2000: A Robust Miniature Mass Spectrometer with Continuous Atmospheric Pressure Interface
by Xiangzhi Meng, Xiaohua Zhang, Yanbing Zhai and Wei Xu
Instruments 2018, 2(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/instruments2010002 - 26 Jan 2018
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 6382
Abstract
A miniature mass spectrometer with continuous atmospheric pressure interface (CAPI) developed previously in our lab has proved to have high stability and rapid analysis speed. With the aim of achieving smaller size, better performance and easier maintenance, in this study, an upgraded miniature [...] Read more.
A miniature mass spectrometer with continuous atmospheric pressure interface (CAPI) developed previously in our lab has proved to have high stability and rapid analysis speed. With the aim of achieving smaller size, better performance and easier maintenance, in this study, an upgraded miniature mass spectrometer with CAPI was developed, in which all components were optimized and redesigned into a packaged unit. Using a more powerful pumping system, better analytical performances were obtained for this system. The miniature mass spectrometer has the capability to perform tandem mass spectrometry, and could be coupled with ambient ionization sources for analysis of different samples. Good stability (signal relative standard deviation, RSD < 5%), high sensitivity (limit of detection, LOD 10 ng/mL), better than unit mass resolution, and a broad mass range (from 150 Da to 2000 Da) were obtained. Integrated with a tablet computer for system control, the miniature mass spectrometer has dimensions of 38 cm × 23 cm × 34 cm (length × width × height), and is 13 kg in total weight. The whole system is powered by an adapter with a power consumption of 200 watts in total. Full article
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