An evaluation of miniaturised field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry hyphenated with time-of-flight mass spectrometry

In this thesis, the performance of a miniaturised field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) device hyphenated with time-of-flight mass spectrometry is studied and evaluated for analysis of a variety of compounds in different sample matrices. FAIMS is a selective spectrometer which is highly orthogonal to mass spectrometry and has the potential for enhancing sensitivity and improve selectivity of rapid analyses. In Chapter 2, the performance of the miniaturised FAIMS device is tested for stability and transmission under a wide range of ion source conditions. An investigation of three different systems, including pairs of isobaric, isomeric and near-mass ions shows that miniaturised FAIMS has the ability to distinguish between analytes that are challenging to separate by mass spectrometry. Chapter 3 explores the effect of changing the composition of the carrier gas by observing the effect of adding gas modifiers on the FAIMS spectra of small molecules, peptides and proteins. Chapter 4 investigates the advantages of combining a fast FAIMS separation with mass spectrometry in the analysis of nitrogen-containing pharmaceutical impurities, where FAIMS is found to offer additional selectivity. In Chapter 5, the development of a UHPLC-FAIMS-MS method for the quantitative determination of a drug metabolite in urine is reported. UHPLC-FAIMS-MS shows improvements in signal-to noise and linear dynamic range as well as a reduction in chemical noise, demonstrating the potential of combining FAIMS with mass spectrometry.