Highly Efficient Ion Manipulator for Tandem Ion Mobility Spectrometry: Exploring a Versatile Technique by a Study of Primary Alcohols

Abstract

In this work, we present a tandem ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) utilizing a highly efficient ion manipulator allowing to store, manipulate, and analyze ions under high electric field strengths and controlled ion-neutral reactions at ambient conditions. The arrangement of tandem drift regions and an ion manipulator in a single drift tube allows a sequence of mobility selection of precursor ions, followed by storage and analysis, mobility separation, and detection of the resulting product ions. In this article, we present a journey exploring the capabilities of the present instrument by a study of eight different primary alcohols characterized at reduced electric field strengths E/N of up to 120 Td with a water vapor concentration ranging from 40 to 540 ppb. Under these conditions, protonated alcohol monomers up to a carbon number of nine could be dissociated, resulting in 18 different fragmented product ions in total. The fragmentation patterns revealed regularities, which can be used for assignment to the chemical class and improved classification of unknown substances. Furthermore, both the time spent in high electrical field strengths and the reaction time with water vapor can be tuned precisely, allowing the fragment distribution to be influenced. Thus, further information regarding the relations of the product ions can be gathered in a standalone drift tube IMS for the first time.