Related Articles

• Fiber analysis by thermal desorption/pyrolysis DART®

  Analyzing fiber samples has always been difficult by DART®. The problem has been that there is no easy way to hold the fiber in the gas stream without losing it into the vacuum system. A fiber can be secured in the DART gas stream with forceps or other means, but if the DART gas is too hot, the fiber can break off and be lost into the mass spectrometer vacuum system through the atmospheric pressure interface. A thermal desorption/pyrolysis stage (The Biochromato, Inc. “ionRocket™”) designed for use with DART produces highly reproducible thermal desorption profiles that show outgassing, additives, and high-quality pyrolysis DART mass spectra for materials. Because fiber samples placed in the disposable copper sample “pots” are not positioned directly in the DART gas stream, a single fiber can be analyzed without risk of loss into the vacuum system.
• Analyzing a Specific Component using Group Analysis of msFineAnalysis Ver. 2 - MSTips 303

  In 2018, we announced the msFineAnalysis software which was designed to automatically integrate two types of data acquired by EI and soft ionization. Recently, we developed msFineAnalysis Version 2, an enhanced version with additional features. msFineAnalysis Version 2 incorporates two new features: Chromatographic Deconvolution and Group Analysis. In this work, we use the group analysis capabilities of the software to evaluate the pyrolysis GC-MS results for a vinyl acetate resin.
• Analysis of duct tapes by thermal desorption and pyrolysis mass spectrometry and X-ray-fluorescence spectroscopy

  The identification of pressure-sensitive tapes such as duct tape and electrical tape is an important forensic application. Here we show the application of thermal desorption and pyrolysis combined with Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART) mass spectrometry to distinguish between manufacturers and brands of duct tapes. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) provides complementary information about the atomic composition of the different tapes.
• Integrated Analysis of an Acrylic Resin using msFineAnalysis v2 - MSTips 300

  In 2018, msFineAnalysis Ver.1 software was released in which data acquired by EI, soft ionization, and accurate mass measurements were automatically integrated to generate a qualitative report for samples measured by these techniques with GC-MS. Recently, msFineAnalysis Ver.2 was introduced as an enhanced version with additional features. In this work, we will describe the changes in Ver.2, which now includes chromatographic deconvolution, and present applications using the new features.
• Monitoring Rotary Vacuum Pump Oil Degradation by Using Field Desorption (FD)-TOFMS and Group-type Analysis Software

  Field Desorption (FD) is a technique that ionizes analytes by electron tunneling from the analyte molecules to a solid surface (emitter) in a high electric field. The sample is applied directly onto the emitter and heated by applying an electric current through the emitter for desorption and ionization. FD has been used for the analysis of nonvolatile compounds, synthetic polymers, etc., as a soft ionization method to produce molecular ions with little or no fragmentations. As a result, the average molecular weight of a sample can be calculated directly from the masses (or “m/z”) and intensities for all of the ions observed in the FD mass spectrum. Furthermore, by applying group-type analysis, the components can be classified into types based on their functional groups and/or unsaturations. Average molecular weight, polydispersity index, or relative abundance of each type can also be obtained. In this work, new and used rotary vacuum pump (RP hereafter) oils were analyzed by FD. Afterwards, the change in their compositions was determined by performing group-type analysis on the resulting mass spectra.
• Analysis of Organic Thin Films by the Laser Desorption/Ionization Method Using the JMS-S3000 “SpiralTOF”

  Laser Desorption/ Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (LDI-TOFMS) is generally used for analysis of organic compounds because this technique generates little fragmentation of molecular ions at ionization. It makes possible to obtain information on molecular weights and molecular structures in organic compounds. In particular, a technique which uses the matrix compounds for enhancing ionization efficiency is well known as Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/ Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS). This technique is widely used in the bio markets owing to its capability of ionizing proteins and peptides with the molecular weights of several thousands to several hundreds of thousands. The MALDI-TOFMS is also utilized for analysis of synthetic polymers. In many cases, LDI-TOFMS and MALDI-TOFMS have been used to estimate the molecular weights of organic compounds in solution. But very recently, techniques of imaging mass spectrometry, which controls the laser irradiation position by two-dimensional scan to acquire mass spectra for visualizing localization of chemical compounds with specific molecular weights, have been improved. The application of this innovative technique is increasingly spreading in the bio markets. The technology of Imaging Mass Spectrometry has been advancing for analyzing biological tissue sections, but in the future, it is expected to develop toward the material science markets. It is noted that various surface analytical techniques are already available in the material science markets. In order to study the advantages of LDI-TOFMS as one of effective surface analysis tools, it is essential to consider the complementary analysis of LDI-TOFMS with the existing surface analytical techniques. In this article, the advantages of using LDI-TOFMS for analyzing organic lightemitting diode material thin films, in accordance with comparison with Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), have been studied. In addition, since LDI-TOFMS is a destructive analytical technique, the influence on the sample surface caused by LDI-TOFMS was also examined.