OPTIMIZATION OF MASS RANGE, DYNAMIC RANGE, SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO, MASS RESOLUTION, AND MASS ACCURACY FOR CHARACTERIZATION OF PETROLEUM BY FT-ICR MASS SPECTROMETRY

摘要

Mass spectral resolution and identification of tens of thousands of elemental compositions, CcHhNnOoSs, from fresh or weathered spilled oil requires state-of-the-art mass resolution (to 0.0005 Da), mass accuracy (to <100 ppb mass error), dynamic range, mass range, and signal-to-noise ratio. Figure 1 shows that higher magnetic field strength, B, improves essentially every figure of merit for Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) by factors proportional to B or B2 [1]. Thus, our recently completed 21 T Bruker magnet (due for installation in the second quarter of 2014) should improve our current 9.4 T FT-ICR MS performance by factors of 2.4 to 5.0.