Adjacent Pulsed Nanoelectrospray Ionization Emitters for the Alternating Generation of Ions of Opposite Polarity

摘要

An approach that allows for adjacent closely spacednnanoelectrospray ionization (nESI) emitters to be pulsednalternately to generate ions of opposite polarity for transmissionnthrough a common interface is described. Thenpotential difference between two or more nESI emittersnin close proximity is minimized by applying the samenpolarity to both emitters at any given point in time butnwith the magnitude of only the active emitter’s potentialnbeing sufficiently high to sustain a stable spray. Thenreduced difference in potential between emitters allowsnthe distance between emitters to be decreased to withinna few millimeters so that compromises imposed by thenuse of multiple emitters for the generation of ions fromndistinct solutions using a common atmosphere interfacenare minimized.