An ion source may include an ionization chamber to be maintained at atmospheric-pressure. The ion source may further include a reduced-pressure chamber to be maintained at sub-atmospheric pressure, and an ion transfer device comprising an inlet in the ionization chamber and an outlet in the reduced-pressure chamber. The ion transfer device may define an ion path from the inlet to the outlet. The ion transfer device may be positioned to emit ions and neutral gas molecules from the outlet as an expanding beam comprising a low-gas density zone enveloped by a high-gas density region that includes a gas density that is higher than the low-gas density zone. The ion source may be utilized, for example, for ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), mass spectrometry (MS), and hybrid IM-MS.

A mass spectrometer comprises an orifice plate having an orifice, a first multipole ion guide in a first chamber downstream of said orifice plate, said first multipole ion guide comprising a plurality of rods, and a second multipole ion guide in a second chamber downstream of said first chamber, said second multipole ion guide comprising a plurality of rods. A first ion lens is between the first and the second multipole ion guides. A third multipole ion guide is in a third chamber downstream of the second chamber, the third multipole ion guide comprises a plurality of rods. A second ion lens is between the second and third chambers. A tunable DC voltage source applies a tunable DC offset voltage to at least one of the above ion guide and ion lenses to increase an axial kinetic energy of the ions to cause at least one of declustering and/or fragmentation.

In an inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) system, ions are transmitted into a collision/reaction cell. A DC potential is applied at an exit of the cell at a first magnitude to generate a DC potential barrier effective to prevent the ions from exiting the cell. The DC potential barrier is maintained during a confinement period to perform an interaction. After the confinement period, analyte ions or product ions are transmitted to a mass spectrometer by switching the exit DC potential to a second magnitude effective to allow the analyte ions or product ions to pass through the cell exit as a pulse. The analyte ions or product ions are then counted during a measurement period. The interaction may be ion-molecule reactions or ion-molecule collisions.

A method for determining in a sample, by mass spectrometry, the amount of one or more analytes selected from the group consisting of N-acetylthreonine, TMAP, phenylacetylglutamine, tryptophan, creatinine, meso-erythritol, arabitol, myo-inositol, N-acetyl serine, N-acetylalanine, 3-methylhistidine, trans-4-hydroxyproline, kynurenine, urea, C-glycosyltryptophan, 3-indoxyl sulfate, pseudouridine, and combinations thereof is described. The method comprises subjecting the sample to an ionization source under conditions suitable to produce one or more ions detectable by mass spectrometry from each of the one or more of the analytes; measuring, by mass spectrometry, the amount of the one or more ions from each of the one or more analytes; and using the measured amount of the one or more ions to determine the amount of each of the one or more analytes in the sample. Also described is a kit comprising one or more isotopically labeled analogues as internal standards for each of the one or more analytes.

A method of mass spectrometry for analyzing a sample within a mass range of interest includes the steps: ionizing the sample to produce a plurality of precursor ions; performing an MS1 scan of the precursor ions comprising mass analyzing the precursor ions across the mass range of interest, to obtain an MS1 mass spectrum of the precursor ions; determining ion intensity values within the MS1 mass spectrum; selecting precursor mass segments within the mass range of interest, and for each precursor mass segment: fragmenting the precursor ions within that precursor mass segment; and performing an MS2 scan of the fragmented ions by: controlling an amount of fragmented ions for that precursor mass segment, based on an intensity value for that precursor mass segment derived from the MS1 spectrum; and mass analyzing the amount of fragmented ions.

A hybrid mass spectrometer design and architecture, and methods of operating mass spectrometers are disclosed. According to one operating method, an analysis time is determined for each one of a plurality of ion species to be analyzed in an ordered sequence, and an injection time is calculated for at least some of the ion species based on an analysis time of a preceding ion species in the ordered list. The method enables more efficient utilization of analyzer time.

Certain embodiments described herein are directed to injector inserts and injector assemblies. In some examples, an injector insert that includes an inlet comprising a substantially inert metal is described. In other examples, an injector that includes a major amount of a substantially inert metal in a fluid flow path is disclosed. Devices and systems using the injectors inserts and injectors are also described.

A method for measuring a sample comprising silicon by mass spectrometry is implemented from an inductively coupled plasma-tandem mass spectrometer, or ICP-MS/MS. The measurement method comprises a step of measuring by mass spectrometry by a reactive gas. The reactive gas comprising nitrous oxide.

Provided is a method for mass spectrometry in which ions to be analyzed are made to come in contact with a cooling gas in a cooling section, such as an ion trap 2, configured to perform the cooling of ions, and kinetic energy is subsequently imparted to the ions so as to introduce the ions into a flight space of a multi-turn time-of-flight mass separator 30 or similar device for separating ions according to their mass-to-charge ratios. According to the present invention, when a known or estimated number of charges of an ion to be analyzed is high, the amount of supply of the cooling gas to the cooling section is set to a lower level than when the number of charges is low. This operation improves the detection sensitivity for ions having large molecular weights and high numbers of charges.

A method for parallel analysis in mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry includes enabling a sample to be subjected to a chromatography separation; ionizing the chromatography separated sample and then feeding the sample into a succeeding stage device for analysis, comprising: analyzing at least part of the ionized sample through an ion mobility spectrometer to obtain an ion mobility spectrum, and analyzing at least other parts of the sample through a mass spectrometer to obtain a mass spectrum, wherein the period for obtaining each ion mobility spectrum and each mass spectrum being not longer than 5 s; and performing data post-processing, comprising: correlating the peaks in said ion mobility spectrum and the peaks in said mass spectrum with a deconvolution algorithm according to the consistency in retention time or elution profile for the same analyte in said chromatography.