US Patent 7122791 - Carbon Nanotube Coatings for Mass Spectroscopy Tips
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7122791.pdf
Mass spectroscopy is a useful technique to characterize biomolecules by ionizing the biomolecules and determining the mass via analysis of the trajectory of the biomolecules in an electric field. Nanotubes, which have favorable electron emission properties, have previously been proposed as the ionization source. While this patent also proposes the use of nanotubes in mass spectroscopy, rather than using the nanotubes as the emission source it uses the hydrophobic properties on nanotube coatings to reduce the effects of ion spray.
Claim 1 reads:
1. A capillary for a mass spectrometry system, comprising: a channel and a tip, at least one of the channel and the tip comprising a coating of a carbon nanotube material that provides a hydrophobic surface.
Mass spectroscopy is a useful technique to characterize biomolecules by ionizing the biomolecules and determining the mass via analysis of the trajectory of the biomolecules in an electric field. Nanotubes, which have favorable electron emission properties, have previously been proposed as the ionization source. While this patent also proposes the use of nanotubes in mass spectroscopy, rather than using the nanotubes as the emission source it uses the hydrophobic properties on nanotube coatings to reduce the effects of ion spray.
Claim 1 reads:
1. A capillary for a mass spectrometry system, comprising: a channel and a tip, at least one of the channel and the tip comprising a coating of a carbon nanotube material that provides a hydrophobic surface.
posted by blaisemouttet at 9:39 PM
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