GENERAL OVERVIEW
Our mass spectrometers are exceptionally compact because they incorporate a Cylindrical Ion Trap (CIT) developed at Purdue University and commercialized by Griffin. This significant advancement in MS capability allows for utilization in the field of technology that previously was only available in laboratories. By incorporating CITs into Griffin's family of products, the vacuum requirements normally associated with laboratory units have been reduced, the power requirements minimized, and all achieved with analytical performance equivalent to traditional laboratory ion traps and quadrupoles.
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
Like traditional quadrupole ion traps with hyperbolic electrode geometries, the CIT utilizes a three-electrode structure comprising a ring and two end-cap electrodes to perform mass analysis. Ions generated in the manner described above are trapped between the electrodes by an oscillating electric field. Ions of a particular mass-to-charge ratio can be trapped within this field for an indefinite amount of time.
Once ions are trapped in the CIT, they can be further manipulated for MS/MS. All ions of a particular mass-to-charge ratio oscillate at a very specific frequency given a set of experimental conditions. These ions can be further manipulated by applying a frequency in resonance with their oscillation frequency. This is typically done with an amplitude either great enough to cause unwanted ions to be ejected or an amplitude just high enough to cause fragmentation of the ions. By ejecting ions that are either unwanted or may be interfering with the ions of interest, or by generating specific fragment ions, an analyte’s identity can be determined with higher specificity.
By utilizing the power of CITs, the overall size of the units has been dramatically reduced while at the same time, providing the ultimate in spectral information with MS/MS.