Abstract
Ionic liquid ion sources (ILISs) are externally wetted and electrochemically etched and sharpened tungsten tips used as electrospraying sources for ionic liquids in a vacuum. They have recently shown an ability to operate as emitters of pure ion beams (no drops), even with ionic liquids of moderate surface tension (γ<40dyn∕cm) and electrical conductivity (K<1S∕m) that had in all prior reports (all based on conventional internally fed capillary tips) always operated in the mixed ion-drop regime. The present study uses time of flight mass spectrometry to analyze full ion beams emitted from ILISs for a diversity of ionic liquids with properties in the wide range 0.26<K(S∕m)<2.8, 39.3<γ(dyn∕cm)<48.6. Remarkably, all liquids tested achieve the purely ionic regime. The main effect of reducing electrical conductivity is a reduction of the emission current from 180to10nA.
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