Ion soft-landing is a mass spectrometry-based deposition method that delivers intact and pure molecular ions onto a surface with kinetic energy in the hyperthermal range (1–100 eV). This gentle deposition process is analogous to molecular beam epitaxy but uses charged species instead of neutral molecules. Ion soft-landing provides access for deposition of a wide range of both stable and chemically labile charged species, from small atomic ions to large protein complexes in the megadalton mass range. However, its ion currents are substantially lower than typical fluxes of neutral molecules used in molecular beam epitaxy, therefore, ion soft-landing has been mainly used for preparing monolayers on small conductive or semiconductive substrates. To address this challenge, we developed a multiplexed electrospray ionization interface with improved ion transmission and achieved high-flux ion soft-landing that decreases the deposition time substantially.
Multiplexing of Electrospray Ionization Sources Using Orthogonal Injection into an Electrodynamic Ion Funnel, Analytical Chemistry, 2021, 93, 33, 11576-11584, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.1c02092.
Pei Su, Xi Chen, Andrew J. Smith, Michael F. Espenship,Hugo Y. Samayoa-Oviedo, Solita M. Wilson, Habib Gholipour-Ranjbar, Carlos Larriba-Andaluz and Julia Laskin