Abstract
An inlet has been developed for admitting airborne particles directly into a surface-ionization mass spectrometer. The inlet consists of a capillary nozzle through which ambient air is drawn, generating a beam of the entrained particles; a skimmer which diverts most of the air expanding into a vacuum while simultaneously transmitting the particle beam; and a collimator through which the particle beam also passes and by which another stage of differential pumping is obtained. The particles impinge upon a hot rhenium filament where the constituent materials are ionized by surface ionization. The air sampling capacity of the inlet is 0.5 I min −1. Particle transmission efficiency varies with size and exceeds 50% for cesium nitrate particles 1.6 μm in diameter. The inlet has been incorporated into a mass spectrometer for continuous, real-time analysis of airborne particles.
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