Control of dopants/modifiers in differential mobility spectrometry using a piezoelectric injector

Abstract

A piezoelectric injector has been interfaced to a differential mobility spectrometer to enable fast and reversible control of dopant/transport-gas modifier levels within the reaction region of the instrument. Operating at 1 Hz with optimised bipolar waveforms for the piezoelectric injector and gas flows within the injector, steady-state 2-butanol mass fluxes of 21 to 1230 ng min⁻¹ and 1-bromohexane mass fluxes of 149 to 2644 ng min⁻¹ were delivered to the differential mobility cell. Control of split-flow and transport-gas flow rates enabled rapid and flexible control of the dopant concentrations. The system was consistently reproducible with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 7.9% at every mass- flux level studied. Stable responses were achieved between 3 to 5 s following a change in the control levels and no significant hysteresis effects were observed. In the positive mode it was possible to control the extent of formation protonated monomer and proton bound cluster ions, tentatively assigned to{C₄H₉OH(H₂O)_nH}⁺ and {(C₄H₉OH)₂(H₂O)_nH}⁺ and similar control was possible in the negative mode where the concentration relationship for the formation of bromide clusters indicated the presence of multiple ionisation mechanisms. A dopant formulation for the simultaneous control of ions in both the positive and negative modes was demonstrated by the injection of a 50%/50% v/v solution of 2-butanol/1-bromohexane with mass fluxes of 2-butanol in the mixture of between 11 and 1161 ng min⁻¹ and between 13 and 1325 ng min⁻¹ for 1-bromohexane.