The invention relates to the detection of fatty acids. In a particular aspect, the invention relates to methods for detecting very long chain fatty acids and branched chain fatty acids by mass spectrometry.

An ion-trap system having a trapping location that is controllable with nanometer-scale precision in three dimensions is disclosed. The ion-trap system includes an ion trap that includes a pair of RF driver electrodes, a pair of tuning electrodes operably coupled with the RF driver electrodes to collectively generate an RF field having an RF null that defines the trapping location, as well as a plurality of DC electrodes that are operably coupled with the RF driver electrodes and the tuning electrodes. Each tuning electrode is driven with an RF signal whose amplitude and phase is independently controllable. By controlling the amplitudes of the RF signals applied to the tuning electrodes, the height of the trapping location above the mirror is controlled. The position of the tuning location along two orthogonal lateral directions is controlled by controlling a plurality of DC voltages applied to the plurality of DC electrode pads.

A mass spectrometer is provided having an ion source for generating ions from a sample in a high pressure region, a first vacuum chamber having an inlet aperture, and an exit aperture. The at least one ion guide can be between the inlet and exit apertures and can include an entrance end and an exit end. The at least one ion guide can have a plurality of electrodes arranged around a central axis defining an ion channel, each of the plurality of electrodes being tapered, a planar surface of each of the plurality of tapered electrodes facing the interior of the at least one ion guide, and the surface gradually being narrowed and tilted inward to provide a smaller inscribed radius at the exit; and a power supply for providing an RF voltage to the at least one ion guide.

A linear ion trap system includes a linear ion trap having at least two discrete trapping regions for processing ions. An RF electrical potential generator produces two RF waveforms applied to a pair of pole electrodes of the linear ion trap forming a RF trapping field component to trap ions radially. A multi-output DC electrical potential generator produces a first set of multiple DC field components superimposed to the RF trapping field component and distributed across the length of the linear ion trap to control ions axially. A control unit is configured to switch the DC electrical potentials and DC field components collectively forming a first trapping region of the at least two discrete trapping regions that is populated with ions to alter ion potential energy from a first level to a second level, and to enable at least a first ion processing step in at least one of the first and second levels.

The invention is related to a trapped ion mobility spectrometer (TIMS device) and proposes to use higher order (order N>2) linear multipole RF systems to accumulate and analyze ions at an electric DC field barrier, either pure higher order RF multipole systems or multipole RF systems with transitions from higher order towards lower order, e.g. from a linear octopolar RF system (N=4) to a linear quadrupole RF system (N=2) in front of the apex of the electric DC field barrier.

A method of operating an electrostatic trapping mass analyzer, comprising: introducing a sample of ions into a trapping region of the mass analyzer, wherein a trapping field within the trapping region is such that the ions exhibit radial motion with respect to a central longitudinal axis of the trapping region while undergoing harmonic motion in a dimension defined by the central longitudinal axis, the frequency of harmonic motion of a particular ion being a function of its mass-to-charge ratio; superimposing a modulation field onto the trapping field within the trapping region, the modulation field acting to either increase or reduce the harmonic motion energies of the ions by an amount varying according to the frequency of harmonic motion; and acquiring a mass spectrum of the ions in the trapping region by measuring a signal representative of an image current induced by the harmonic motion of the ions.

Neutral particles are blocked by a deflector provided upstream of a detector. A controller changes a reference potential V2 of the deflector in connection with a change of a reference potential V1 of a collision cell such that a potential difference V between the reference potential V1 and the reference potential V2 is constant. The change of the reference potential V2 is executed during a period in which an ion pulse does not pass the deflector.

A sample preparation apparatus for an elemental analysis system comprising a sample combustion and/or reduction and/or pyrolysis arrangement for receiving a sample of material to be analysed, and producing therefrom a sample gas flow containing atoms, molecules and/or compounds; a gas chromatography (GC) column into which the sample gas flow is directed; a heater for heating at least a part of the GC column; and a controller for controlling the heater. The controller is configured to control the heater so as to increase the temperature of at least the part of the GC column whilst the sample gas flow in the GC column elutes.

An ion separation apparatus comprises: (a) first and second ion carpets, each comprising: a substrate having first and second faces; and a set of electrodes disposed on or beneath the first face, wherein a configuration of a first plurality of the set of electrodes defines at least one group of circle sectors; (b) an ion exit aperture passing through one ion carpet; and (c) one or more power supplies configured to provide radio frequency voltages to a first subset of the electrodes of each ion carpet, to provide electrical potential differences across electrodes of the first subset of electrodes of each ion carpet, and to provide time-varying voltages to the first plurality of electrodes of each ion carpet that migrate through the sectors as a traveling wave, wherein the ion carpets are disposed parallel to one another with a gap therebetween, the first faces facing one another across the gap.

In one aspect, a mass spectrometer is disclosed, which comprises an ion source for receiving a sample and ionizing at least a portion of the sample to generate a plurality of ions, and a Fourier Transform (FT) mass analyzer that is configured to receive at least a portion of said plurality of ions at an inlet thereof. The ions exiting the FT are detected by an ion detector, which generates a transient oscillating ion detection signal. The analyzer processes the ion detection signal via application of an FT thereto, where the FT window width is selected to optimize a mass signal associated with at least one target ion of interest.