High-pressure, soft-ionisation, plasma source

极低磁导率的阻隔膜是未来塑料电子产品的关键要求。目前还没有仪器能够常规测量低至10E-6 g/m2/天的H2O，这是塑料电子行业提供10年设备使用寿命所需的基准水平。这个项目是为了测试高压软电离等离子体源与质谱仪接口的可行性。这项创新将允许在大气压下对屏障膜进行采样，并通过电离感兴趣的质量物质（例如H2O）使所有背景气体保持中性状态，将质谱仪的灵敏度提高100倍以上。最终的结果将是一种能够测量市场领先的WVTR（水蒸气透过率）的仪器，以及其他渗透气体，在不同的屏障膜之间快速转换。

Very low permeability barrier films are a key requirement for the future of plastic electronics. Presently there are no instruments capable of routinely measuring down to 10E-6 g/m2/day H2O, which is the benchmark level required by the plastic electronics industry to deliver device lifetimes of 10 years.This project is to test the feasibility of a high-pressure, soft-ionisation plasma source that interfaces to a mass spectrometer. This innovation will allow a barrier membranes to be sampled at atmospheric pressure, and improve the sensitivity of the mass spectrometer by more than 100 times by ionising mass species of interest (e.g. H2O) leaving all background gases in their neutral state. The end result will be an instrument capable of market leading WVTR (Water Vapour Transmission Rate) measurement, as well as other permeating gases, with rapid turnaround between different barrier membranes.