Collision / reaction cells fundamentals

Since its commercial introduction in 1997, collision cell and reaction cell ICP-MS has come a long way and is now well accepted. A recent tutorial review by Tanner et al. covered the fundamentals of the operation of such devices, and listed the applications published up until September 2001. This section examines implementation and use of the ion-molecule processes enabled in the linear radio-frequency driven (r.f.) collision cells and reaction cells used in ICP-MS, partially drawn from the Tanner et al. review. Special attention is paid to ion dynamics, since the outcome of the ion-molecule processes strongly depends on it. Exart5)les of the principle applications are given along with a discussion of the fundamental processes occurring in pressurized r.f. multipole devices. 

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