# Mass Spectrometry Madness
Date: 2022-10-28
Time: 10.26 AM (Panama local time in 24-hour format!)
Place: Main room
Public documentation channel: https://app.element.io/#/room/#mass-spec-madness:matrix.org
Facilitator: George
Notetaker: Juul, Pierre
Participants:
* George
* Juul
* Nico
* Pierre
* Darin
## Notes
Gather a community around this!
## Links
Chat: https://matrix.to/#/#mass-spec-madness:matrix.org
## Images/videos/audio
### Simplified diagram of a mass spectrometer
![](https://md.opensourceecology.de/uploads/a09c7ce8f0e1bf600bbb9bac1.png)
Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2014.09.024
# Challenges
- Find a better, more general use case (AGE has many alternatives).
- Servicing.
- Simplification: think about individual modules, and how to simplify them separately. Being creative!
## Brainstorming
Microfluidics Mass Spec?
Resolution: from 13 KDalton to 13 MDalton.
# Modules
Parts of the MS!
- Vaccum
- Ionization
- Selection
- Detection
## Vacuum
What pressure do we _really_ need?
- Standard pressure: 10-6 Tor / 10-9 Atm
- We probably wont need this. Macromolecules are large! A few gas atoms will not change their momentum.
- However, the vacuum must be good enough. Else the electro-ionization tip can "burn up" during operation.
Options:
- Pumps
- Getters: get rid of (certain) gasses through absoprtion. The getter material will react with the gasses, and capture them with a very low vapor pressure.
- Requires: the getter (consumable/reusable material), possibly purging with a certain gas (like O2). May require heating the getter to high temperatures with induction (with a high current source possibly).
- There is a reusable getter paper on OHX, about an anaerobic chamber.
- Heated iron (steel wool perhaps!) can be used to capture oxygen. The chamber should be purged of other gasses _really_ well before.
## (Soft) Ionization
Options:
- ESI: high voltage ionization.
- MALDI: requires powerful lasers.
Vacuum-only (with a matrix): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3591669/
Vacuum Chamber: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2021.e00237
ESI with paper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHfgB685dZ4
Heated lamp tungsten filamen (not viable for DNA): https://youtu.be/nIKhUizkXxA?t=505
## Selection
- Quadrupole.
- TOF
- Magneitc sector
- Cyclotron
Possibly Quadrupole.
TOF can work with large molecules / short tube length.
## Detection
Have not discussed this yet :)