Free path

All mass spectrometers must function under high vacuum (low pressure). This is necessary to allow ions to reach the detector without undergoing collisions with other gaseous molecules. Indeed, collisions would produce a deviation of the trajectory and the ion would lose its charge against the walls of the instrument. On the other hand, ion-molecule collisions could produce unwanted reactions and hence increase the complexity of the spectrum. Nevertheless, we will see later that useful techniques use controlled collisions in specific regions of a spectrometer. 

According to the kinetic theory of gases, the mean free path L (in m) is given by 

However, introducing a sample into a mass spectrometer requires the transfer of the sample at atmospheric pressure into a region of high vacuum without compromising the latter. In the same way, producing efficient ion-molecule collisions requires the mean free path to be reduced to around 0.1 mm, implying at least a 60 Pa pressure in a region of the 

The sample must be introduced into the ionization source so that vacuum inside the instrument remains unchanged. Samples are often introduced without compromising the vacuum using direct infusion or direct insertion methods. For direct infusion, a capillary is employed to introduce the sample as a gas or a solution. For direct insertion, the sample is placed on a probe, a plate or a target that is then inserted into the source through a vacuum interlock. For the sources that work at atmospheric pressure and are known as atmospheric pressure ionization (API) sources, introduction of the sample is easy because the complicated procedure for sample introduction into the high vacuum of the mass spectrometer is removed. 

Takats, Z., Wiseman, J.M., Gologan, B. and Cooks, R.G. (2004) Mass spectrometry sampling under ambient conditions with desorption electrospray ionization. Science, 5695, 471-3. 

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The variation of Bq causes all ions to pass sequentially in front of the exit slit behind which is positioned the photomultiplier detector. The pressure in the apparatus is held at 10 torr in order to achieve mean free paths of ions sufficiently high that all ions emitted from the source are collected. 

Seah M P and Dench W A 1979 Quantitative electron spectroscopy of surfaces a standard data base for electron inelastic mean free paths in solids Surf, interface Anai. 1 2... 

We are now going to use this distribution fiinction, together with some elementary notions from mechanics and probability theory, to calculate some properties of a dilute gas in equilibrium. We will calculate tire pressure that the gas exerts on the walls of the container as well as the rate of eflfiision of particles from a very small hole in the wall of the container. As a last example, we will calculate the mean free path of a molecule between collisions with other molecules in the gas. 

The average time between collisions is then v and in this time tlie particle will typically travel a distance X, the mean free path, where... 

This is the desired result. It shows that the mean free path is mversely proportional to the density and the collision cross section. This is a physically sensible result, and could have been obtained by dimensional... 

A3.1.2.2 THE MEAN FREE PATH EXPRESSIONS FOR TRANSPORT COEFFICIENTS... 

One of the most usefiil applications of the mean free path concept occurs in the theory of transport processes in systems where there exist gradients of average but local density, local temperature, and/or local velocity. The existence of such gradients causes a transfer of particles, energy or momentum, respectively, from one region of the system to another. 

If these assumptions are satisfied then the ideas developed earlier about the mean free path can be used to provide qualitative but useful estimates of the transport properties of a dilute gas. While many varied and complicated processes can take place in fluid systems, such as turbulent flow, pattern fonnation, and so on, the principles on which these flows are analysed are remarkably simple. The description of both simple and complicated flows m fluids is based on five hydrodynamic equations, die Navier-Stokes equations. These equations, in trim, are based upon the mechanical laws of conservation of particles, momentum and energy in a fluid, together with a set of phenomenological equations, such as Fourier s law of themial conduction and Newton s law of fluid friction. When these phenomenological laws are used in combination with the conservation equations, one obtains the Navier-Stokes equations. Our goal here is to derive the phenomenological laws from elementary mean free path considerations, and to obtain estimates of the associated transport coefficients. Flere we will consider themial conduction and viscous flow as examples. 

Next we consider the computation of the loss tenn, p - As in the calculation of the mean free path, we need... 

We now compute r by noting again the steps involved in calculating the mean free path, but applying them now to the derivation of an expression for r -... 

If we wish to know the number of (VpV)-collisions that actually take place in this small time interval, we need to know exactly where each particle is located and then follow the motion of all the particles from time tto time t+ bt. In fact, this is what is done in computer simulated molecular dynamics. We wish to avoid this exact specification of the particle trajectories, and instead carry out a plausible argument for the computation of r To do this, Boltzmann made the following assumption, called the Stosszahlansatz, which we encountered already in the calculation of the mean free path ... 

We consider the motion of a large particle in a fluid composed of lighter, smaller particles. We also suppose that the mean free path of the particles in the fluid, X, is much smaller than a characteristic size, R, of the large particle. The analysis of the motion of the large particle is based upon a method due to Langevin. Consider the equation of motion of the large particle. We write it in the fonn... 

Persson M, Wiizen L and Andersson S 1990 Mean free path of a trapped physisorbed hydrogen moiecuie Phys. Rev. B 42 5331... 

Such ideal low mean free paths are the basis of FEED, the teclmique that has been used most for detennining surface structures on the atomic scale. This is also the case of photoelectron diffraction (PD) here, the mean free path of the emitted electrons restricts sensitivity to a similar depdi (actually double the depth of FEED, since the incident x-rays in PD are only weakly adenuated on this scale). 

As we have seen, the electron is the easiest probe to make surface sensitive. For that reason, a number of hybrid teclmiques have been designed that combine the virtues of electrons and of other probes. In particular, electrons and photons (x-rays) have been used together in teclmiques like PD [10] and SEXAFS (or EXAFS, which is the high-energy limit of XAES) [2, Hj. Both of these rely on diffraction by electrons, which have been excited by photons. In the case of PD, the electrons themselves are detected after emission out of the surface, limiting the depth of sampling to that given by the electron mean free path. 

Because a set of binding energies is characteristic for an element, XPS can analyse chemical composition. Almost all photoelectrons used in laboratory XPS have kinetic energies in the range of 0.2 to 1.5 keV, and probe the outer layers of tire sample. The mean free path of electrons in elemental solids depends on the kinetic energy. Optimum surface sensitivity is achieved with electrons at kinetic energies of 50-250 eV, where about 50% of the electrons come from the outennost layer. 

A more accurate calculation will account for differences in the energy dependent mean free paths of the elements and for the transmission characteristics of the electron analyser (see [7]). 

The strong point of AES is that it provides a quick measurement of elements in the surface region of conducting samples. For elements having Auger electrons with energies hr the range of 100-300 eV where the mean free path of the electrons is close to its minimum, AES is considerably more surface sensitive than XPS. 

Figure C2.17.13. A model calculation of the optical absorjDtion of gold nanocrystals. The fonnalism outlined in the text is used to calculate the absorjDtion cross section of bulk gold (solid curve) and of gold nanoparticles of 3 mn (long dashes), 2 mn (short dashes) and 1 mn (dots) radius. The bulk dielectric properties are obtained from a cubic spline fit to the data of [237]. The small blue shift and substantial broadening which result from the mean free path limitation are...

Kriebig U and Fragstein C V 1969 The limitation of electron mean free path in small silver particles Z. Physik 224 307... 

At the present time there exist no flux relations wich a completely sound cheoretical basis, capable of describing transport in porous media over the whole range of pressures or pore sizes. All involve empiricism to a greater or less degree, or are based on a physically unrealistic representation of the structure of the porous medium. Existing models fall into two main classes in the first the medium is modeled as a network of interconnected capillaries, while in the second it is represented by an assembly of stationary obstacles dispersed in the gas on a molecular scale. The first type of model is closely related to the physical structure of the medium, but its development is hampered by the lack of a solution to the problem of transport in a capillary whose diameter is comparable to mean free path lengths in the gas mixture. The second type of model is more tenuously related to the real medium but more tractable theoretically. 

When Che diameter of the Cube is small compared with molecular mean free path lengths in che gas mixture at Che pressure and temperature of interest, molecule-wall collisions are much more frequent Chan molecule-molecule collisions, and the partial pressure gradient of each species is entirely determined by momentum transfer to Che wall by mechanism (i). As shown by Knudsen [3] it is not difficult to estimate the rate of momentum transfer in this case, and hence deduce the flux relations. 

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