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Milestone 2

Development of ionization methods

Nature Methods volume 12, pages 6–7 (2015)Cite this article

In 1929, following the pioneering work of Arthur Dempster and Francis Aston (Milestone 1), Walker Bleakney described a new method of positive ray analysis that involved heating a tungsten wire filament to generate a stream of electrons and then using a uniform magnetic field to focus those electrons into a narrow beam. Bleakney used this technique to measure the first four ionization energies of mercury. Five years later, John Tate and Philip Smith showed that this ionization method—called 'electron impact' (EI) at the time, but now known as 'electron ionization'—could be used to measure the ionization energies of several other elements. It was even possible to generate highly ionized species, such as Cs7+.

Nearly 20 years later, Alfred Nier, whom many would call the 'father of modern mass spectrometry', published a detailed description of an EI mass spectrometer that was able to measure the relative isotopic abundances of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen in a sample. Nier had reported a simpler version of the instrument in 1940, but his work on the Manhattan Project (Milestone 1) prevented him from publishing his improvements until after the Second World War had ended.

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References

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FURTHER READING

  1. Takats, Z., Wiseman, J.M., Gologan, B. & Cooks, R.G. Mass spectrometry sampling under ambient conditions with desorption electrospray ionization. Science 306, 471–473 (2004)

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  2. Cody, R.B., Laramée, J.A. & Durst, H.D. Versatile new ion source for the analysis of materials in open air under ambient conditions. Anal. Chem. 77, 2297–2302 (2005)

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    Joshua Finkelstein

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Finkelstein, J. Development of ionization methods. Nat Methods 12 (Suppl 1), 6–7 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.3538

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