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FT-ICR Mass Spectrometers

In September 2003, the group received a Bruker APEX IV Fourier-Transform Ion-Cyclotron-Resonance (FT-ICR) Mass Spectrometer, which was installed at the University of Bonn for the Collaborative Research Initiative 624 of the DFG. The instrument is equipped with an Apollo ESI ion source which can be replaced by an EI/CI or a MALDI ion source. After generation, the ions are transferred into a 7 Tesla superconducting magnet in which the ions circle inside the ICR cell on a small orbit.

With this mass spectrometric technique, it is possible to study gas-phase reactions, to follow the kinetics of the unimolecular decay of ions of interest or to exa-mine bimolecular reactions of the ions with a neutral reactand. Three methods for exciting the ions are available: (i) collisional activation, (ii) an IR laser for multiple photon irradiation experiments, and (iii) an ECD (electron capture dissociation) filament. The pictures show the instrument and the ESI ion source. The instrument is now run by Dr. Marianne Engeser, head of Mass Spectrometry in Bonn.

After moving to the Freie Universität Berlin in October 2005, a Varian/IonSpec QFT FT-ICR mass spectrometer was installed here in 2006. The instrument is equipped with a Micromass Z-spray ESI ion source and offers a quadrupole for mass selection followed by a hexapole which can be used for collisional activation, before the ions are transferred into the 7 Tesla superconducting magnet. The features of this instrument are similar to those of the Bruker instrument described above. In addition to collision-induced dissociation, IRMPD, and ECD, the instrument offers a temperature controlled bake-out function for the flight tube. Ions can thus be fragmented by blackbody irradiation as well.