Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Dec:518:117511.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijms.2025.117511. Epub 2025 Aug 15.

Demonstration of a Nested Electrostatic Linear Ion Trap for Flexibility in Selecting Analyzer Figures-of-Merit

Jordan M Fritz  1 , Ian J Carrick  1 , Nicholas R Ellin  1 , Eric T Dziekonski  1 , Scott A McLuckey  1
Affiliations

Demonstration of a Nested Electrostatic Linear Ion Trap for Flexibility in Selecting Analyzer Figures-of-Merit

Jordan M Fritz et al. Int J Mass Spectrom. 2025 Dec.

Abstract

An electrostatic linear ion trap (ELIT) is used to trap ions between two ion mirrors with image current detection by central detection electrode. Transformation of the time-domain signal to the frequency-domain via Fourier transform (FT) yields an ion frequency spectrum that can be converted to a mass-to-charge m / z scale. Injection of ions into an ELIT from an external ion source leads to a time-of-flight ion separation that ultimately determines the range of m / z over which ions can be collected from a given ion injection step. The m / z range is determined both by the length of the ELIT and by the distance of the ELIT entrance from the ion source. A longer ELIT leads to a wider m / z range while a shorter ELIT, under equivalent conditions, leads to higher resolving power due to increased ion frequencies. Hence, there is an inherent trade-off between the two important analyzer figures-of-merit of m / z range and resolving power based on the length of the ELIT. In this work, we demonstrate a nested ELIT arrangement, referred to herein as an NELIT, that allows for the selection of one of two possible ELIT lengths within a single array of plates while employing a common detection electrode. While a range of ELIT lengths are possible, in principle, the geometry described herein leads to an effective length ratio of 2.40 for the two traps in the NELIT.

Keywords: electrostatic linear ion trap; enhanced resolving power; mass range; mass spectrometry; nested electrostatic linear ion trap.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Benner WH A Gated Electrostatic Ion Trap to Repetitiously Measure the Charge and m/z of Large Electrospray Ions. Anal. Chem 1997, 69 (20), 4162–4168. 10.1021/ac970163e. - DOI
    1. Jarrold MF Applications of Charge Detection Mass Spectrometry in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. Chem. Rev 2021, 122, 7415–7441. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Harper CC; Elliott AG; Oltrogge LM; Savage D.F. Lin, Williams ER Multiplexed Charge Detection Mass Spectrometry for High-Throughput Single Ion Analysis of Large Molecules. Anal. Chem 2019, 91, 7458–7465. - PubMed
    1. Zajfman D, Rudich Y, Sagi I, Strasser D, Savin DW, Goldberg S, Rappaport M, Heber O High resolution mass spectrometry using a linear electrostatic ion beam trap. Int. J. Mass Spectrom 2003, 229, 55–60. doi: 10.1016/S1387-3806(03)00255-0. - DOI
    1. Zajfman D; Heber O; Vejby-Christensen L; Ben-Itzhak I; Rappaport M; Fishman R; Dahan M Electrostatic Bottle for Long-Time Storage of Fast Ion Beams. Phys. Rev. A 1997, 55 (3), R1577–R1580. 10.1103/PhysRevA.55.R1577. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources