STTR Phase II: Novel Ionization Process for Materials Characterization using Mass Spectrometry

这项小型企业技术转让（STTR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是发现用于质谱分析的新电离技术。该技术将降低成本，降低能耗，减少用户专业知识，这可能会推动质谱进入大型和服务不足的市场，如医疗诊断和专门用于国土安全、床边诊断或生物威胁检测的现场便携式仪器。这项新技术改变了目前对质谱中使用的电离过程的理解，并提供了新的创新机会，通过改进测量来推进科学，影响健康、安全和安保等领域。第二阶段项目的目标是开发接口，将第一阶段开发的平台整合到大多数主要质谱仪制造商的仪器上，并开发快速自动化分析表面的技术。第二阶段的研究旨在更好地了解这种新技术的基础，以便以具有竞争力的价格推动高灵敏度快速分析的商业成功。质谱仪的广泛应用代表了一个价值40亿美元的产业，其中电离技术代表了一个重要的商业机会。这个STTR二期项目提议通过提供利用简单而强大的电离技术的商业产品来彻底改变质谱中的电离。新发现的过程可以自发地将大小、挥发性和非挥发性化合物转化为质谱分析所需的气相离子，而无需使用目前使用的高成本激光器或高压。该方法广泛适用于分析直接来自体液或组织的化合物，如药物、脂类、碳水化合物偶联物、多肽和蛋白质，以及合成聚合物和无机催化表面。这项技术有望在临床分析、制药、法医学、环境和食品安全等应用中增强甚至取代旧的电离方法。第二阶段项目的目标是在各种制造商的仪器上实施第一阶段开发的多功能平台，自动化过程以实现更低的成本和更快的分析，并提供自动化表面分析平台。除了确定最佳的样品制备方法和溶剂/基质的选择外，研究目标还包括创新的自动化样品导入技术，该技术可以消除对传统“离子源”的需求，同时减少泵送要求，而泵送要求目前阻碍了小型、低成本便携式质谱仪的发展。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project will be the discovery of new ionization technology for use with mass spectrometry. This technology will enable lower cost, lower energy use, and reduced user expertise, which may potentially drive mass spectrometry into large and underserved markets such as medical diagnostics and field portable instruments designed specifically for use in homeland security, bedside diagnostics, or bio-threat detection. The new technology changes the current understanding of ionization processes used in mass spectrometry and provides opportunities for new innovations to advance science through improved measurements, impacting fields such as health, safety, and security. The aims of this Phase II project are to develop interfaces to incorporate the platform developed in Phase I on most major mass spectrometer manufacturer's instruments and to develop technologies for rapid automate analyses even of surfaces. The research of Phase II is aimed to better understand the fundamentals of this new technology in order to drive commercial success in high sensitivity rapid analyses at a competitive price. Mass spectrometers are widely used representing a $4 billion industry of which ionization technology represents a significant commercial opportunity.This STTR Phase II project proposes to revolutionize ionization in mass spectrometry by providing commercial products that utilize a simple and powerful ionization technology. The newly discovered process spontaneously converts large and small, volatile and nonvolatile compounds to the gas-phase ions necessary for analysis using mass spectrometry without employing currently used high cost lasers or high voltage. The method is broadly applicable for analysis of compounds such as drugs, lipids, carbohydrate conjugates, peptides, and proteins directly from bodily fluids or tissue, as well as synthetic polymers and inorganic catalytic surfaces. This technology is anticipated to augment or even replace older ionization methods in applications such as clinical analyses, pharmaceuticals, forensics, environmental, and food safety. The aims of the Phase II project are to implement the multifunctional platform developed during Phase I on a variety of manufacturer's instruments, automate the process to allow lower cost and faster analyses, and provide an automated surface analysis platform. Besides determining the best sample preparation methodologies and choice of solvents/matrices, the research objectives include innovative automated sample introduction technologies that eliminate the need for a conventional "ion source" while reducing the pumping requirements, which currently hinder development of small, low-cost portable mass spectrometers.