A system for the mass spectrometry analysis of an analyte includes a droplet ejection device, a spray head comprising a spray tip for ejecting the solvent as a spray, and a solvent delivery conduit for delivering solvent to the spray tip. The spray head includes a droplet inlet opening communicating with the surrounding atmosphere for receiving liquid droplets comprising the analyte. The droplet ejection device selectively ejects a liquid analyte droplet comprising the analyte through a surrounding atmosphere and the droplet inlet opening into a solvent flowing through the solvent delivery conduit. A method for the mass spectrometry analysis of an analyte is also disclosed.

The invention relates to the detection of non-metabolized vitamin D. In a particular aspect, the invention relates to methods for detecting underivatized non-metabolized vitamin D by mass spectrometry.

A system and method comprising an ion production chamber having an ultra-violet light source disposed towards said chamber, a coated quartz plate between the chamber and the UV source whose coating absorbs incident UV light and ejects electrons into the chamber through the photoelectric effect, a harvest gas disposed to flow through the chamber from an inlet to an outlet, and a jet operable to introduce a sample into the harvest gas flow. In some embodiments the system includes using helium as the harvest gas. Certain embodiments include introducing a sample perpendicular to the harvest gas flow and using multiple sample introduction jets to increase mixing efficiency. In some embodiments the harvest gas and particle sample jet are one and the same. The charge sample may be coupled to a MEMS-based electrometer.

A spray area in which a large number of droplets of a liquid sample sprayed from a spray nozzle is separated from the tip of a needle electrode for corona discharge by a sufficiently large distance, with a grid electrode facing the needle electrode placed in between. Ring electrodes for creating an electric field which drives primary ions that should react with the sample and generate sample-derived ions are provided within an ion chamber between the grid electrode and the spray area. Primary ions generated by corona discharge within the space between the needle electrode and the grid electrode pass through the opening of the grid electrode, reach the spray area under the effect of the electric field, and ionize sample components. Since the droplets are prevented from adhering to the needle electrode, the corona discharge is maintained in a stable state.

A method for analysing an aliphatic compound by mass spectrometry which comprises: (i) ionising an aliphatic compound in the presence of a heterocyclic modifier; and (ii) mass analysing the resulting ions to obtain mass spectrometric data.

An ionization device includes: a plasma generating device for generating metastable particles and/or ions of an ionization gas in a primary plasma region; a field generating device for generating a glow discharge in a secondary plasma region; an inlet for supplying a gas to be ionized into the secondary plasma region; and a further inlet for supplying the metastable particles and/or the ions of the ionization gas into the secondary plasma region. A mass spectrometer includes such an ionization device and a detector downstream of the outlet of the ionization device for the mass-spectrometric analysis of the ionized gas.

One aspect of the disclosure provides a method of mass spectrometric analysis that includes producing either glow discharge within a noble gas between 3-100 mBar pressure, sampling and conditioning glow discharge products within a gas flow through a conductive channel, removing charged particles while transferring excited Ridberg atoms, and mixing conditioned discharge products with analyte flow within an enclosed chamber at elevated temperatures above 150° Celsius for producing a Penning reaction between analyte molecules and Ridberg atoms. The method further includes sampling, by a gas flow, said analyte ions for mass spectrometric analysis, and at least one of the following steps: (i) removing charge within said conditioning channel; (ii) coaxially mixing of analyte flow with the flow of conditioned plasma; and (iii) cooling of the mixed flow within a sonic or supersonic jet for reducing the region of Penning ionization to cold jet.

An interface for receiving ions in a carrier gas from an atmospheric pressure ion source at a spectrometer that is configured to analyse the received ions at a lower pressure includes an interface vacuum chamber having a downstream aperture; a support assembly defining an axial bore arranged to allow a removable capillary tube to extend therethrough; ions being received from the atmospheric pressure ion source through the capillary tube and directed towards the downstream aperture; and a jet disruptor, positioned downstream from the axial bore and configured to disrupt gas flow between the axial bore and the downstream aperture only when the capillary tube is not fully inserted through the axial bore.

A particle charger is provided with: a filter (28) partitioning the inside of a housing (20) into a first space (29) and second space (30); a particle introducer (22) for introducing a particle into the first space; a gas ion supplier (10) for supplying the first space with a gas ion; a potential gradient creator (26, 27, 31) for creating a potential difference within the housing so as to make the gas ion and a charged particle resulting from a contact of the aforementioned particle with the gas ion move toward the second space; an AC voltage supplier (32, 33) for applying AC voltages having a phase difference to the neighboring electrodes (28a, b) included in the filter; a controller (35) for performing a control for applying, to the plurality of electrodes, predetermined voltages so as to allow the charged particle to pass through a gap between the electrodes while trapping the gas ion by the electrodes; and a charged particle extractor (23, 25, 34) for extracting the charged particle admitted to the second space to the outside of the housing. By this configuration, the occurrence frequency of the multi-charging is suppressed.

Disclosed is a device to generate ions from a deposited sample, comprising: A chamber which is arranged and designed to keep the deposited sample in a conditioned environment comprising a dopant gas, A desorption device which is arranged and designed to desorb the deposited sample in the chamber using an energy burst, An ionization device which, for the purpose of ionization, is arranged and designed to irradiate the desorbed sample in the chamber using coherent electromagnetic waves or expose it to an electric discharge, a plasma, or light of an arc discharge lamp with broadband emission spectrum, which are chosen such that the dopant gas is receptive to them, and An extraction device which is arranged and designed to extract ions from the desorbed sample and transfer them into an analyzer. Disclosed is also a method which is preferably conducted on such a device.