Acquisition of a High Resolution Mass Spectrometer for Materials Characterization and Education

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This award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research Program and the Solid-State Chemistry Program will help Northwestern University with the acquisition of a high-resolution magnetic-sector mass spectrometer with electron impact (EI) and liquid secondary ion mass spectrometry (LSIMS) ionization sources. This instrument will be used to characterize a wide range of materials science compounds such as mesoporous supramolecular molecules, porphyrazines, novel molecular species for electronic device structure, and other macrocyclic materials. As this research has moved toward larger and more complex species, the availability of in-house state-of- the-art mass spectrometry instrumentation has become essential for characterization of these molecules. The requested instrument will improve on the mass spectrometry capabilities for in-house molecular characterization in several ways: (1) the increased sensitivity for high-resolution mass spectrometry with either electron impact (EI) or LSIMS ionization is essential for determination of elemental composition of these species; (2) the increased mass range for mass spectrometry with LSIMS ionization will allow both low- and high-resolution characterization of the higher molecular weight species which will continue to increase in molecular weight as the research programs at NU progress; (3) air-sensitive materials may be characterized without fear of decomposition during transit to another laboratory.This award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research Program and the Solid-State Chemistry Program will help Northwestern University (NU) with the acquisition of a high-resolution magnetic-sector mass spectrometer with electron impact and liquid secondary ion mass spectrometry ionization sources and with appropriate sample inlets for compounds with a wide range of volatility and purity. This instrument will be a significant benefit to molecular characterization in the materials research efforts in the Chemistry Department. Currently such characterization is done by sending samples to external laboratories. In-house characterization with the requested instrument will benefit both the research and the educational efforts at NU. The availability of the requested instrument for in-house analysis will increase significantly the exposure of graduate students to modern analytical techniques. In addition to gaining a more complete characterization of the materials that they have synthesized, students also will gain a deeper understanding of the techniques used for the analysis, the reason for choosing different ionization techniques, and the accurate interpretation of the mass spectra gathered from this analysis.