Ion Reaction, Ion Dissociation and Ion Collection in the Open Laboratory Environment

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program supports Professor R. Graham Cooks of Purdue University to devise means of performing significant parts of the mass spectrometric experiment outside the mass spectrometer, in the open laboratory environment. In this way, it is hoped to achieve gains in speed and performance, while minimizing the inefficiencies associated with transferring ions into vacuum. Working with ions in the ambient environment also enables fuller exploration of the fundamental chemical relationships between the reactions of ions in solution and those of ions in the mass spectrometer. These studies gain broad impact because mass spectrometry is an analytical tool used widely in science and industry for chemical analysis; it has special roles in pharmaceutical discovery, environmental monitoring, food safety, forensics and biomedical research. Its high sensitivity, chemical specificity (low false positives), and the diversity of applications have elevated it to an outstanding position among methods of chemical analysis. Work in the Cooks laboratory also addresses the urgent national need to improve the infrastructure of science by contributing to the training of instrumentation scientists. Efforts are directed especially towards attracting women and minorities into this area.