Development of a commercial Automated Laser Gas Interface (ALGI) for AMS

Abstract

National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) collectively have been developing an interface to introduce CO2 produced by the laser combustion of liquid chromatograph eluate deposited on a CuO substrate directly into the ion source of an AMS system, thereby bypassing the customary graphitization process. The Automated Laser Gas Interface (ALGI) converts dried liquid samples to CO2 gas quickly and efficiently, allowing 96 samples to be measured in as little as 16h. 14C:12C ratios stabilize typically within 2 min of analysis time per sample. Presented is the recent progress of NEC’s ALGI, a stand-alone accessory to an NEC gas-enabled multi-cathode source of negative ions by Cs sputtering (MC-SNICS) ion source.