Study of three-stage high-resolution ion isolation for portable ion trap mass spectrometer

Abstract

Portable ion trap mass spectrometers, especially for those with continuous atmospheric pressure interfaces, usually implement vacuum pumps with limited power for miniaturization, which leads to high vacuum pressures and reduced resolutions. In this study, two three-stage high-resolution ion isolation methods of SWIFT - AC frequency sweep - SWIFT and SWIFT - RF voltage ramp - SWIFT were proposed. Compared to the 2.8 m/z isolation resolution of the traditional SWIFT ion isolation method, higher isolation resolutions of 2.2 m/z and 1.5 m/z have been achieved by SWIFT - AC frequency sweep - SWIFT and SWIFT - RF voltage ramp - SWIFT ion isolation methods at an isolation efficiency of 40 %. In addition, our detailed experiments showed that all ion isolation methods can obtain higher isolation resolution under the conditions of lower vacuum pressure, higher isolation q value, and stronger axial confinement potential barrier, like which the mass resolution behaves. In order to inspect the effectiveness of the high-resolution isolation method, the control experiments of hair samples spiked with drugs had been conducted. The signal-to-noise ratio of O⁶-monoacetylmorphine can be improved by a factor of 2.4 using the SWIFT - RF voltage ramp - SWIFT ion isolation method. Our research results indicate that the performance of ion trap tandem mass spectrometry can be effectively improved by using the three-stage high-resolution ion isolation methods.