Real-time compositional analysis of submicrometre particles

摘要

A particle analyser is described that simultaneously detects and characterizes10 mu m diameter particles independent of particle composition in real time. No previous instrument has been able to perform these functions simultaneously. Our design uses pulsed laser ablation of particles followed by time-of-flight mass spectrometric analysis of the resulting ions. The ion intensity is related to particle size at least for small particles. Thus particle size information is obtained concurrently with the other information.