Coated Blade Spray Ion Mobility Spectrometry.

Coated blade spray (CBS) is a microextraction technology with blades that serve as both the extraction device and the electrospray ionization (ESI) emitter. CBS is designed for easy and rapid extraction of analytes in complex matrices as well as ESI directly from the blade. The technology selectively enriches the components of interest on a coated metal blade. The coating consists of a selective polymer. So far, CBS has only been coupled with mass spectrometry but never with ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), where ions are separated and detected based on their ion mobility in a drift gas under the influence of an electric field, while instrumentation is compact and easy to operate so that the advantages of CBS can be particularly well exploited. Therefore, this work focuses on coupling CBS with our previously described ESI-IMS. The ion mobility spectrometer has a drift length of only 75 mm and provides a high resolving power of RP = 100. In this work, preliminary measurements of CBS-IMS are presented. In particular, the detection of benzodiazepines and ketamine in drinks and the pesticide isoproturon in water samples is shown to demonstrate the feasibility of CBS-IMS.

Towards a Highly Sensitive Piezoelectric Nano-Mass Detection-A Model-Based Concept Study.

The detection of exceedingly small masses still presents a large challenge, and even though very high sensitivities have been archived, the fabrication of those setups is still difficult. In this paper, a novel approach for a co-resonant mass detector is theoretically presented, where simple fabrication is addressed in this early concept phase. To simplify the setup, longitudinal and bending vibrations were combined for the first time. The direct integration of an aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric element for simultaneous excitation and sensing further simplified the setup. The feasibility of this concept is shown by a model-based approach, and the underlying parameter dependencies are presented with an equivalent model. To include the geometrical and material aspects, a finite element model that supports the concept as a very promising approach for future nano-mass detectors is established.

Non-radioactive electron capture detector for gas chromatography - A possible replacement for radioactive detectors.

With detection limits in the low ppbv-range, electron capture detectors (ECD) are the most sensitive GC-detectors available for electron affine compounds, such as pesticides or chlorofluorocarbons. The working principle is based on the generation of free electrons at atmospheric pressure, which are usually emitted from a radioactive Ni-63 source. However, the use of radioactive materials leads to regulatory restrictions regarding purchase, operation and disposal. Recently, we introduced a novel ECD based on a non-radioactive electron source, achieving comparable detection limits, e.g. 1 ppbv (6 ng/l) for 1,1,2-trichloroethane. However, the linear range was still below that of radioactive ECDs. In addition, the detector volume was too large to be used as a GC detector. We now present an improved version of this non-radioactive ECD with significantly increased linear range of 6.5∙103 for 1,1,2-trichloroethane by implementing pulsed operation using a newly developed, autonomous control electronics. In addition, the detector volume is reduced to 100 µl, leading to faster response times, less memory effects and thus less peak broadening. The improved ECD with non-radioactive electron source reaches similar analytical performance compared to commercially available radioactive ECDs and thus can be used as a possible replacement of radioactive ECDs.