Gas-Phase Ion Chemistry and Organic Chemistry: The Story of a Hybrid Six-Sector Mass Spectrometer—The “AutoSpec 6F”

Abstract

The AutoSpec 6F mass spectrometer is a large, floor standing instrument comprising a pair of commercial EBE geometry (AutoSpec) mass spectrometers coupled in series to provide a hybrid EBE–EBE configuration (E and B being, respectively, electrostatic and magnetic sectors.) It was designed in close collaboration between Professor R. Flammang and VG Analytical in Manchester, UK. It is equipped with five collision cells and allows the recording of high-energy collision-induced dissociation (CID), mass analyzed ion kinetic energy spectrometry and neutralization–reionization mass spectrometry data as well as consecutive MSn analyses. The field-free regions between sectors allow the study of unimolecular decomposition products from long-lived metastable ions. The mass spectrometer became even more versatile when a radio frequency-only quadrupole collision cell was installed between the second and the third electric sector. This allows the study of associative ion/molecule reactions in the low kinetic energy regime. Bimolecular chemical reactions were performed inside the quadrupole cell when a neutral reagent was introduced and the reaction products were analyzed by high-energy CID in the downstream sectors. This paper recounts the history and summarizes the capabilities of this versatile instrument.