Neutral particle mass spectrometry with nanomechanical systems

Eric Sage (1) , Ariel Brenac (2) , Thomas Alava (1) , Robert Morel (2) , Cecilia Dupre (1) , Mehmet Selim Hanay (3) , Michael L. Roukes (3) , Laurent Duraffourg (1) , Christophe Masselon (1, 4) , Sébastien Hentz (1)

1 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information
2 SPINTEC - SPINtronique et TEchnologie des Composants
3 CALTECH - California Institute of Technology
4 BGE - UMR S1038 - Laboratoire de Biologie à Grande Échelle

Current approaches to mass spectrometry (MS) require ionization of the analytes of interest. For high-mass species, the resulting charge state distribution can be complex and difficult to interpret correctly. Here, using a setup comprising both conventional time-of-flight MS (TOF-MS) and nano-electromechanical systems-based MS (NEMS-MS) in situ, we show directly that NEMS-MS analysis is insensitive to charge state: the spectrum consists of a single peak whatever the species' charge state, making it significantly clearer than existing MS analysis. In subsequent tests, all the charged particles are electrostatically removed from the beam, and unlike TOF-MS, NEMS-MS can still measure masses. This demonstrates the possibility to measure mass spectra for neutral particles. Thus, it is possible to envisage MS-based studies of analytes that are incompatible with current ionization techniques and the way is now open for the development of cutting-edge system architectures with unique analytical capability.

Mots clés: Electrospray-Ionization; Cobalt Clusters; Nobel Lecture; Real-Time; Dendrimers; MDA

Domaines: Physique [physics]

Eric Sage, Ariel Brenac, Thomas Alava, Robert Morel, Cecilia Dupre, et al.. Neutral particle mass spectrometry with nanomechanical systems. Nature Communications, 2015, 6, pp.6482. ⟨10.1038/ncomms7482⟩. ⟨hal-01616537⟩