Instrumentation of Department of Chemistry of Ions in Gaseous Phase

A: Major Equipment - Mass Spectrometry

1) Selected ion flow tube mass spectrometer Profile 3 SIFT-MS (Instrument Science Ltd, UK)
- chemical ionisation using H3O+, NO+ and O2+ reagent ions selected from a microwave discharge
- quadrupole mass spectrometric ion detection and counting in m/z range 10 - 300
- positive ion molecule reaction kinetics and determination of rate coefficients and product ion branching ratios
- mouthpiece breath sampling inlet heated to 70 C
- capillary headspace sampling inlet heated to 70 C
- absolute quantification of volatile compounds in range 10 - 10 000 ppbv

2) Selected ion flow tube apparatus TSIFT Mk1 (Europa Scientific Ltd, UK)
- electron ionisation ion source 
- injection mass filter operating for both positive and negative modes
- quadrupole mass spectrometric ion detection and counting in m/z range 10 - 300
- temperature variable flow tube (200 - 400 K)
- positive and negative ion molecule reaction kinetics and determination of rate coefficients and product ion branching ratios
- study of planetary atmospheric ion chemistry

3) Hybrid tandem mass spectrometer ZAB2-SEQ (Micromass, UK)
- electron ionisation ion source 
- double focusing mass spectrometer 
- direct inlet probe, DIP
- mass range m/z 15 000
- 8 keV ion energy
- neutralisation - reionisation facility

4) GC/MS FOCUS GC ITQ 700 ion trap mass spectrometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., USA)
- electron ionisation and chemical ionisation ion source 
- ion trap mass spectrometric ion detection range m/z 20 - 650 
- manual split/splitless injector
- solid phase microextraction SPME
- mid-polar columns for volatile organic compounds (including TR1, DB624)

6) LC/MS/MS tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer, Quattro Premier XE (Waters, USA)
- electrospray ionisation ESI ion source
- triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer MS/MS
- high performance liquid chromatography separation HPLC
- mass range m/z 4000
- modified for ion-molecule reaction studies

7) SESI/MS mass spectrometer, bespoke construction
- secondary electrospray ionisation SESI ion source
- triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer or ion-trap MS/MS
- mass range m/z 1000

B: Available Methods

1) Select ion flow tube mass spectrometry
- quantification of volatile metabolites in breath, liquid headspace analyses
- 1 s real time resolution, time dependence of concentrations
- bacterial cultures, environmental and food samples

2) Secondary Electrospray Ionisation (SESI) mass spectrometry

- high sensitivity analyses of volatile metabolites
- sub ppbv limit of detection

3) Electron ionisation EI mass spectrometry
- analyses of organometallic compounds using a dedicated direct sample inlet probe

4) LC/MS
- liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection

5) Ion chemistry
- determination of rate coefficients and product ion branching ratios at a range of temperatures and energies

C: Auxiliary equipment

1) Gas standard generator (KIN-TEK)
- permeation tubes
- Permeation tube oven with wide temperature range controlled to 0.1 °C

2) GilAir sample collecting pump (Sensidyne)
- tubes for thermal desorption, TD.
- 1 - 5 000 mL/min

3) ZNC3 Vector Network Analyzer (Rohde & Schwarz, s.r.o)
- analyses of electronic circuits in 9kHz - 3GHz range
- calibration set ZV-Z170

4) Zero-air generator
- continuous supply of purified air without presence of organic compounds

Department of Chemistry of Ions in Gaseous Phase

Deputy Head