Evaluating the impact of an octopole for a portable trapped ion mobility spectrometry device

Project Abstract

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) rapidly separates ions on the millisecond timescale based on their mobility through a buffer gas, which reflects their size-to-charge ratio. Portable IMS platforms have shown promise in detection of explosives, narcotics, and chemical warfare agents. Achieving sufficient resolving power is essential to mitigate false positives. Conventionally, resolution is enhanced by increasing the length of the analysis region for greater number of collisions with the drift gas. However, this approach enlarges the instrument footprint and compromises portability, thereby motivating investigation of alternative methodologies to improve resolution. Trapped ion mobility achieves improved resolution through gas flow, keeping the analysis region small. However, gas flow requires significant pumping and ion containment challenges for portable designs. Here we investigate the effect of an octopole analysis region on both gas flow and ion containment. Through the use of computational fluid dynamics, gas flow is assessed within the device based on portable pumping capabilities. SIMION software is used to simulate ion trajectories under gas flow, demonstrating the operating conditions needed for ion analysis. This is compared to previous designs to establish feasibility of an octopole analysis region.

Conference

Conference Name: American Chemical Society

Dates: March 22-26, 2026

Sponsoring Body: American Chemical Society

Funding Type

Travel Grant

Academic College

Jesse D. Jones College of Science, Engineering and Technology

Area/Major/Minor

Pre-med/Chemistry/Cell Biology

Degree

Bachelor of Chemistry

Classification

Senior

Name

Caleb Morris, PhD

Academic College

Jesse D. Jones College of Science, Engineering and Technology

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