Construction and Application of a Device for Sequential Ionization of Different Component in Miscellaneous Samples

A device which can be used for sequential ionization of different component in miscellaneous samples for mass spectrometry was developed to acquire the molecular structure, the abundance and spatial distribution at the molecular level. Several modules including reagent selection and mixing, micro liquid distribution and transport, morphology microscopic analysis, electrolysis and ionization of trace samples, energy regulation such as temperature and microwave, and special high efficiency ionization mass spectrometry were designed. The reagent quantification addition and mixing module selects solvents according to the experimental needs and mixes them uniformly in a certain proportion. The micro liquid distribution module is responsible for transporting the prepared carrier reagents. The micro electrolytic cell module introduces the reagents carrying energy and meeting the physical and chemical performance requirements into the high efficiency ionization module. The specific forms of energy such as temperature, microwave and ultrasound are transferred and coupled by the field energy coupling and control module to the selected carrier reagents and mixed samples. The sample solvent is ionized and analyzed by mass spectrometry in the high efficiency ionization module to obtain information on the type, correlation, relative abundance of the material molecules of the sample. The workflow of the above mixed sample detection must be exposed to the microscopic morphological analysis field of view at all times to ensure the real-time online observation of morphological dimensions. These modules were scientifically arranged, compactly mounted on the support coupling module, and worked accurately and orderly under the overall control of the timing trigger and intelligent control module to realize the sequential ionization and mass spectrometry analysis of the mixed samples. The sequential soft ionization and high-sensitivity mass spectrometry analysis were realized by combining the device with electrospray spray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), nanoelectrospray ionization mass spectrometry (nanoESI-MS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The sequential detection of organic and inorganic components in ore samples, alloys and biological samples were applied and more abundant component information were obtained, which has great application prospects in material science, energy science, earth science, life science and other fields.