Fundamental Studies of Ion Formation from Charged and Neutral Drops with Applications to Gas Phase Ion Chemistry and Chemical Analysis

加州理工学院的J.L.比彻姆在分析和表面化学计划的支持下，研究带电和中性液滴的离子形成机理，并将其应用于气相离子化学和化学分析。计划在三个领域开展前沿研究，包括(1)继续研究小带电液滴形成解溶离子的机制，以期更深入地了解电喷雾电离(ESI)中的离子形成过程；(2)开展一项新举措，以表征PI实验室开发的一种新方法：场致液滴电离，基于中性液滴在强电场中的不稳定性，从中性液滴中提取分子离子和团簇；(3)将这些方法应用于从环境分析到纳米粒子化学的各种研究。这些研究预计将导致离子收集和分析的新的有效技术，其应用不仅包括对生物分子的灵敏检测，而且还包括对爆炸物、化学和生物武器制剂以及与环境有关的化学品的测量。

J. L. Beauchamp of the California Institute of Technology is supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program to study the mechanism of ion formation from charged and neutral drops with applications to gas phase ion chemistry and chemical analysis. Frontier research is planned in three areas, including (1) continued studies of the mechanism of desolvated ion formation from small charged droplets, expected to provide greater insights into the process of ion formation in electrospray ionization (ESI) (2) a new initiative to characterize a novel method developed in the PI laboratory using field induced droplet ionization (FIDI), to extract molecular ions and clusters from neutral droplets, based on neutral droplet instability in strong electric fields and (3) application of these methods to studies ranging from environmental analysis to nanoparticle chemistry. These studies are expected to lead to new and efficient techniques for ion collection and analysis, with applications that include not only the sensitive detection of biological molecules, but also measurements of explosives, chemical and biological weapons agents, and chemicals of environmental interest.