Effects of Different Waveforms on the Performance of Active Capillary Dielectric Barrier Discharge Ionization Mass Spectrometry

• Published in: Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 575 - 578
• Main Authors: Dumlao, Morphy C., Xiao, Dan, Zhang, Daming, Fletcher, John, Donald, William A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-04-2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: ABUNDANCE; ALTERNATING CURRENT; Analytical Chemistry; Batteries; Bioinformatics; Biotechnology; CAPILLARIES; Capillary waves; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS; Dielectric barrier discharge; DIELECTRIC MATERIALS; DIFFUSION BARRIERS; ELECTRIC POTENTIAL; ENERGY ABSORPTION; Energy consumption; Focus: Emerging Investigators: Short Communication; INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; Internal energy; ION DETECTION; IONIZATION; Ions; MASS SPECTROMETERS; Mass spectrometry; MASS SPECTROSCOPY; Organic Chemistry; PHOSPHONATES; Plasma; Plasmas; Power consumption; Proteomics; Scientific imaging; Spectrometers; Spectroscopy; WAVE FORMS; Waveforms; Thermometer ions; Chemical warfare agents; Dimethyl methyl phosphonate; Perfluorooctanoic acid; Dielectric barrier discharge ionization; Persistent organic pollutants; Low temperature plasma ionization; Nerve agents; Portable mass spectrometry
• ISSN: 1044-0305; 1879-1123
• DOI: 10.1007/s13361-016-1535-5

Active capillary dielectric barrier discharge ionization (DBDI) is emerging as a compact, low-cost, and robust method to form intact ions of small molecules for detection in near real time by portable mass spectrometers. Here, we demonstrate that by using a 10 kHz, ~2.5 kV
p-p
high-voltage square-wave alternating current plasma, active capillary DBDI can consume less than 1 μW of power. In contrast, the power consumed using a sine and triangle alternating current waveform is more than two orders of magnitude higher than that for the square waveform to obtain a similar voltage for plasma generation. Moreover, the plasma obtained using a square waveform can be significantly more homogenous than that obtained using sine and triangle waveforms. Protonated dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) and deprotonated perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) can be detected at about the same or higher abundances using square-wave DBDI mass spectrometry compared with the use of sine and triangle waveforms. By use of benzylammonium thermometer ions, the extent of internal energy deposition using square, sine, or triangle waveform excited plasmas are essentially the same at the optimum voltages for ion detection. Using an H-bridge circuit driving a transformer optimized to reduce losses, square-wave active capillary DBDI can be continuously powered for ~50 h by common 9 V-battery (PP3).
Graphical Abstract
ᅟ