A beam of ions accelerated to 5% the speed of light will punch through a silicon nitride window into open air, eroding a sample’s surface to identify its molecules and trace elements at a scale smaller than a micron. This matters because existing mass spectrometry imaging typically requires a vacuum, which limits the types of samples that can be analysed. Living tissue, wet geological specimens, or fragile artworks cannot be placed in a vacuum without damage or alteration. This new system removes that constraint, allowing direct chemical mapping of materials in their natural state. If successful, the instrument could transform forensic analysis of trace evidence, enable real-time biomedical tissue diagnostics without sample preparation, and help geologists or environmental scientists map contaminants at microscopic resolution. It could also reveal the composition of archaeological and art objects without cutting or destroying them. The research is primarily an engineering and fundamental science advance—building the world’s first scanning mass spectrometer capable of sub-micron imaging in air—but its applications across forensics, medicine, geology, and cultural heritage are immediate and concrete.
View original technical description
This proposal aims to develop a new ambient pressure mass spectrometry imaging system. It will use a beam of ions accelerated to MeV potential energy - velocities of the order of 5% the speed of light or less. The beam will be focussed using a set of quadrapole magnetic lenses to less than a micron in size and will be passed out of the vacuum system through a 100nm thick silicon nitride window into air where it will be able to travel between 0.5-1.0cm before stopping. A sample placed in front of this beam of ions will be sputtered (eroded) by the interaction of the ions with the electrons in the system (electronic energy loss). Previous experiments in vacuum have demonstrated that if the sample is a molecular material it is possible to extract large (~45kDa) molecular species from the surface and that these can be detected in a Time of Flight mass spectrometer to determine their molecular mass. Fragments that are removed at the same time give indications about the bonding arrangements of the molecules sputtered and can be used to determine the probable molecular arrangement. The beam itself can be raster scanned using an electrostatic field so that a molecular map of the surface of the material can be determined at the micron scale. The ions as they enter the surface of the material are moving fast enough that they will also cause electrons in the outer shells of the atoms that they pass to become exited and in relaxing back will give out a characteristic X-ray. These X-rays can also be collected and analysed using a technique known as Partical Induced X-ray Emmision (PIXE) to give trace element maps as well. This will be the worlds first scanning mass spectrometer capable of imaging at the sub micron scale in air. Applications for this equipment range from forensics to biomedicine taking in geology and the environment as well as helping to understand the origins and manufacture of art and archeological remains. These applications will be encouraged over the period of the project.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know