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AC corona-discharge aerosol-neutralization device adapted to liquid chromatography/particle beam/mass spectrometry.

An AC corona-discharge device was inserted upstream of a thermospray vaporizer tip in a liquid chromatography/particle beam mass spectrometer to neutralize static aerosol charging. Response of a test analyte was measured with or without discharge initiation. If the solvent contained no ammonium acetate buffer, increased analyte signal was associated with the discharge. However, in the presence of ammonium acetate the benefit of AC discharge neutralization was either not observed or was more subtle. This led to the conclusion that the previously observed ammonium acetate "carrier" effect is attributable, at least in part, to neutralization of static electric charges produced spontaneously during the solvent nebulization process. In a second experiment, the pattern of particles issuing from the system momentum separator was examined by aiming the particle beam at a cold target located within a mass spectrometer ion source. Variations in particle density were observed depending on (i) whether or not the aerosol had been neutralized and (ii) the proximity of electron-beam-collimating magnets to the particle beam trajectory. These results are consistent with a hypothesis that electrostatic charging occurs spontaneously during the nebulization process in which an aerosol is formed from the high performance liquid chromatography effluent. Such electrostatic charging introduces a factor likely to degrade system performance by at least two modes: through interactions of the charged aerosol particles (i) with the walls of the aerosol transmission pathway, and, after they are accelerated into a particle beam and introduced into the mass spectrometer, (ii) with the magnets used for electron beam collimation in many mass spectrometer ion sources.