摘要 |
This invention relates to several improvements in mass spectrometric analysis. In accordance with one aspect of this invention, a mass spectrometer sampling system is provided in which a continuous flowing liquid stream can be sampled into a carrier gas stream where it is heated and vaporized. The gas and vapor mixture is transmitted into a plurality of chambers connected in series which have the effects of diluting the concentration of the vaporized liquid injected into the inert gas streams and also shaping the concentration time profile at the exit of the last chamber to be a symmetric peak. These effects have been found to provide several advantages such as prolonging the instrument operation time, and allowing a faster sample injection rate. Once the mixture has exited the last of the chambers, a molecular leak is provided to reduce the pressure to that necessary for the operation of the mass spectrometer. A series of chambers in accordance with this invention has also been found to enable very thorough mixing of reagents.
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