Enhancing the Performance of Tyndall–Powell Gate Ion Mobility Spectrometry by Combining Ion Enrichment, Discrimination Reduction, and Temporal Compression into a Single Gating Process

作者：Qimu Yang, Yiqian Xu, Manman Pan, Dandan Jiang, Zhenxin Wang, Weiguo Wang, Xianzhe Shi, Chuang Chen, Haiyang Li · 发表于：Analytical Chemistry · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1021/acs.analchem.4c00582 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications、Analytical chemistry methods development、Ion-surface interactions and analysis

The broad applications of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) demand good sensitivity and resolving power for ion species with different reduced mobilities ( K 0 ). In this work, a new Tyndall–Powell gate (TPG) gating method for combining ion enrichment, mobility discrimination reduction, and temporal compression into a single gating process is proposed to improve IMS analysis performance. The two-parallel-grid structure and well-confined gate region of the TPG make it convenient to spatiotemporally vary the electric fields within and around the gate region. Under the new gating method, a potential wave is applied on TPG grid 1 to enrich ions within the ionization region adjacent to the TPG during the gate-closed state; meanwhile, a potential wave is applied on TPG grid 2 to enhance mobility discrimination reduction and temporal compression simultaneously during the gate-open state. For triethyl phosphate (TEP) and dimethyl methylphosphonate mixtures, product ion peaks within K 0 of 1.9 to 1.1 cm 2 /V·s exhibit a 19-fold increase in ion current compared to the traditional TPG gating method, while maintaining a resolving power of 85. The estimated limit of detection for the TEP dimer is lowered from 8 ppb to 135 ppt. The new gating method can be applied to other TPG-based IMS systems to enhance their performance in analyzing complex samples.