Desolvation chambers

A typical arrangement for producing a particle beam from a stream of liquid, showing (1) the nebulizer, (2) the desolvation chamber, (3) the wall heater, (4) the exit nozzle, (5, 6) skimmers 1, 2, (7) the end of the ion source, (8) the ion source, and (9) the mass analyzer. An optional GC inlet into the ion source is shown. 

These factors make it necessary to reduce the amount of solvent vapor entering the flame to as low a level as possible and to make any droplets or particulates entering the flame as small and of as uniform a droplet size as possible. Desolvation chambers are designed to optimize these factors so as to maintain a near-constant efficiency of ionization and to flatten out fluctuations in droplet size from the nebulizer. Droplets of less than 10 pm in diameter are preferred. For flow rates of less than about 10 pl/min issuing from micro- or nanobore liquid chromatography columns, a desolvation chamber is unlikely to be needed. 

The simplest desolvation chambers consist simply of a tube heated to about 150°C through which the spray of droplets passes. During passage through this heated region, solvent evaporates rapidly from the droplets and forms vapor. The mixed vapor and residual small droplets or particulates of sample matter are swept by argon through a second cooled tube, which allows vapor to... 

A second form of desolvation chamber relies on diffusion of small vapor molecules through pores in a Teflon membrane in preference to the much larger droplets (molecular agglomerations), which are held back. These devices have proved popular with thermospray and ultrasonic nebulizers, both of which produce large quantities of solvent and droplets in a short space of time. Bundles of heated hollow polyimide or Naflon fibers have been introduced as short, high-surface-area membranes for efficient desolvation. 

Solutions can be examined by ICP/MS by (a) removing the solvent (direct and electrothermal methods) and then vaporizing residual sample solute or (b) nebulizing the sample solution into a spray of droplets that is swept into the plasma flame after passing through a desolvation chamber, where excess solvent is removed. The direct and electrothermal methods are not as convenient as the nebulization inlets for multiple samples, but the former are generally much more efficient in transferring samples into the flame for analysis. 

The calculation shows how rapidly a droplet changes in diameter with time as it flows toward the plasma flame. At 40°C, a droplet loses 90% of its size within alxtut 1.5 sec, in which time the sweep gas has flowed only about 8 cm along the tube leading to the plasma flame. Typical desolvation chambers operate at 150°C and, at these temperatures, similar changes in diameter will be complete within a few milliseconds. The droplets of sample solution lose almost all of their solvent (dry out) to give only residual sample (solute) particulate matter before reaching the plasma flame. 

Many designs of nebulizer are commonly used in ICP/MS, but their construction and mode of operation can be collated into a small number of groups pneumatic, ultrasonic, thermospray, APCI, and electrospray. These different types are discussed in the following sections, which are followed by further sections on spray and desolvation chambers. 

In a concentric-tube nebulizer, the sample solution is drawn through the inner capillary by the vacuum created when the argon gas stream flows over the end (nozzle) at high linear velocity. As the solution is drawn out, the edges of the liquid forming a film over the end of the inner capillary are blown away as a spray of droplets and solvent vapor. This aerosol may pass through spray and desolvation chambers before reaching the plasma flame. 

The thermospray device produces a wide dispersion of droplet sizes and transfers much of sample solution in unit time to the plasma flame. Therefore, it is essential to remove as great a proportion of the bigger droplets and solvent as possible to avoid compromising the flame performance. Consequently, the thermospray device usually requires both spray and desolvation chambers, especially for analyte solutions in organic solvents. 

Thermospray nebulizers are somewhat expensive but can be used on-line to a liquid chromatographic column. About 10% of sample solution is transferred to the plasma flame. The overall performance of the thermospray device compares well with pneumatic and ultrasonic sprays. When used with microbore liquid chromatographic columns, which produce only about 100 pl/min of eluant, the need for spray and desolvation chambers is reduced, and detection sensitivities similar to those of the ultrasonic devices can be attained both are some 20 times better than the sensitivities routinely found in pneumatic nebulizers. 

Having removed the larger droplets, it may remain only to encourage natural evaporation of solvent from the remaining small droplets by use of a desolvation chamber. In this chamber, the droplets are heated to temperatures up to about 150 C, often through use of infrared heaters. The extra heat causes rapid desolvation of the droplets, which frequently dry out completely to leave the analyte as small particles that are swept by the argon flow into the flame. 

Having assisted desolvation in this way, the carrier gas then carries solvent vapor produced in the initial nebulization with more produced in the desolvation chamber. The relatively large amounts of solvent may be too much for the plasma flame, causing instability in its performance and, sometimes, putting out the flame completely. Therefore, the desolvation chamber usually contains a second section placed after the heating section. In this second part of the desolvation chamber, the carrier gas and entrained vapor are strongly cooled to temperatures of about 0 to -10 C. Much of the vapor condenses out onto the walls of the cooled section and is allowed to drain away. Since this drainage consists only of solvent and not analyte solution, it is normally directed to waste. 

Introduction of sample solution via a nebulizer may need both spray and a desolvation chamber, but a well-designed, efficient nebulizer needs neither. 

In some instances, the plasma flame can go out altogether if the levels of sample or other contaminants rise too high. This problem has led to the development of a wide variety of gasAiquid separators and/or desolvation chambers that condition the sample before it is introduced to the flame. These separators and chambers reduce the amount of solvent flowing into the flame. 

To assist evaporation of solvent, the argon stream carrying the aerosol can be passed through a heated tube called a desolvation chamber, operated at temperatures up to about 150°C. 

The large quantities of solvent vapor produced from the evaporating droplets must be removed before reaching the plasma flame, which is done by having cooling tubes sited after the heated desolvation chamber to condense the vapor into liquid. This condensed liquid is run to waste. 

To assist in the deposition of these larger droplets, nebulizer inlet systems frequently incorporate a spray chamber sited immediately after the nebulizer and before the desolvation chamber. Any liquid deposited in the spray chamber is wasted analyte solution, which can be run off to waste or recycled. A nebulizer inlet may consist of (a) only a nebulizer, (b) a nebulizer and a spray chamber, or (c) a nebulizer, a spray chamber, and a desolvation chamber. Whichever arrangement is used, the object is to transfer analyte to the plasma flame in as fine a particulate consistency as possible, with as high an efficiency as possible. 

The direct-liquid-introduction interface is shown schematically in Figure 4.2. This system is effectively a probe, at the end of which is a pinhole of approximately 5 p.m diameter, which abuts a desolvation chamber attached to the ion source of the mass spectrometer. The eluate from an HPLC column is circulated... 

The formation of droplets, which range from 50 to 200 nm in diameter, gives a very large snrface area from which evaporation may take place rapidly. The desolvation chamber is maintained virtually at ambient temperature by providing snfficient heat to overcome the latent heat of vaporization of the mobile phase. While the volatile components vaporize, the less volatile components, such as... 

There are two notable features of the quantitative performance of this type of interface. It has been found that non-linear responses are often obtained at low analyte concentrations. This has been attributed to the formation of smaller particles than at higher concentrations and their more easy removal by the jet separator. Signal enhancement has been observed due to the presence of (a) coeluting compounds (including any isotopically labelled internal standard that may be used), and (b) mobile-phase additives such as ammonium acetate. It has been suggested that ion-molecule aggregates are formed and these cause larger particles to be produced in the desolvation chamber. Such particles are transferred to the mass spectrometer more efficiently. It was found, however, that the particle size distribution after addition of ammonium acetate, when enhancement was observed, was little different to that in the absence of ammonium acetate when no enhancement was observed. 

Maximum flow-rates compatible with DLI interfaces are in the range of 50 to 100 pL/min. Microbore columns (<1.0mm i.d. column) operating at 5 to lOOpL/min are ideally suited for DLI LC/MS. A flow splitter is required to couple conventional LC with a DLI interface so that only a fraction of the total eluent is introduced into the mass spectrometer. Splitting the flow outside the mass spectrometer results in loss of sensitivity, an undesirable consequence. Henion and co-workers have reported an approach in which the splitter is incorporated into the desolvation chamber of the mass spectrometer. The removal of solvent is achieved by diverting the vapor generated by the solvent without loss of sample and, therefore, sensitivity. Excess pressure inside the mass spectrometer is therefore avoided while higher flow-rates can be accommodated. 

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