STTR Phase II: Novel Ionization Process for Materials Characterization using Mass Spectrometry

STTR 第二阶段：使用质谱进行材料表征的新型电离过程

• 批准号: 1556043
• 负责人: Charles McEwen
• 金额: $ 73.69万
• 依托单位: MSTM, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-05-01 至 2019-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1556043&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; II; Novel; Ionization

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project will be the discovery of new ionization technology for use with mass spectrometry. This technology will enable lower cost, lower energy use, and reduced user expertise, which may potentially drive mass spectrometry into large and underserved markets such as medical diagnostics and field portable instruments designed specifically for use in homeland security, bedside diagnostics, or bio-threat detection. The new technology changes the current understanding of ionization processes used in mass spectrometry and provides opportunities for new innovations to advance science through improved measurements, impacting fields such as health, safety, and security. The aims of this Phase II project are to develop interfaces to incorporate the platform developed in Phase I on most major mass spectrometer manufacturer's instruments and to develop technologies for rapid automate analyses even of surfaces. The research of Phase II is aimed to better understand the fundamentals of this new technology in order to drive commercial success in high sensitivity rapid analyses at a competitive price. Mass spectrometers are widely used representing a $4 billion industry of which ionization technology represents a significant commercial opportunity.This STTR Phase II project proposes to revolutionize ionization in mass spectrometry by providing commercial products that utilize a simple and powerful ionization technology. The newly discovered process spontaneously converts large and small, volatile and nonvolatile compounds to the gas-phase ions necessary for analysis using mass spectrometry without employing currently used high cost lasers or high voltage. The method is broadly applicable for analysis of compounds such as drugs, lipids, carbohydrate conjugates, peptides, and proteins directly from bodily fluids or tissue, as well as synthetic polymers and inorganic catalytic surfaces. This technology is anticipated to augment or even replace older ionization methods in applications such as clinical analyses, pharmaceuticals, forensics, environmental, and food safety. The aims of the Phase II project are to implement the multifunctional platform developed during Phase I on a variety of manufacturer's instruments, automate the process to allow lower cost and faster analyses, and provide an automated surface analysis platform. Besides determining the best sample preparation methodologies and choice of solvents/matrices, the research objectives include innovative automated sample introduction technologies that eliminate the need for a conventional "ion source" while reducing the pumping requirements, which currently hinder development of small, low-cost portable mass spectrometers.

这种小型企业技术转移（STTR）II期项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是发现新的电离技术，用于质谱。 这项技术将使较低的成本，较低的能源使用和减少的用户专业知识，这可能会将质谱驱动到服务的大型市场，例如医疗诊断和现场便携式仪器，专为国土安全性，床旁诊断或生物威胁性检测而设计。新技术改变了当前对质谱中使用的电离过程的理解，并为新创新提供了通过改进测量，影响健康，安全和安全等领域来推进科学的机会。该第二阶段项目的目的是开发界面，以在大多数主要质谱仪制造商的仪器上合并I阶段中开发的平台，并开发技术，以快速自动化自动化分析。 第二阶段的研究旨在更好地了解这项新技术的基础知识，以便以具有竞争力的价格在高灵敏度快速分析中取得成功。质谱仪被广泛代表一个40亿美元的行业，其电离技术代表了一个重要的商业机会。该STTR II期项目提议通过提供利用简单且强大的电离技术的商业产品来彻底改变质谱的电离。新发现的过程自发地将大小，挥发性和非易失性化合物转换为使用质谱分析所需的气相离子，而无需使用当前使用的高成本激光或高压。该方法广泛地适用于直接从体液或组织以及合成聚合物和无机催化表面的药物，脂质，碳水化合物结合物，肽和蛋白质等化合物分析。 预计该技术将在临床分析，药品，取证，环境和食品安全等应用中增加甚至取代较旧的电离方法。第二阶段项目的目的是实现在第一阶段开发的多功能平台上，以自动化各种制造商的仪器，以允许较低的成本和更快的分析，并提供自动化的表面分析平台。 除了确定最佳样品制备方法和溶剂/矩阵的选择外，研究目标还包括创新的自动化样本介绍技术，这些技术消除了对常规“离子源”的需求，同时又减少了泵送需求，这些技术目前会阻碍小型，低比例的便携式质量光谱仪的发展。