This grant from the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program will support Professor Marshall's efforts to develop two new techniques involving Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, FT/ICR/MS. The first method is a new two dimensional approach that should give tandem in time MS/MS to provide immediate identification of all the coupled ion-molecule reactions occuring in a complex mixtures. The second technique involves the determination of the structure of gas-phase ions trapped in the ICR cell by using infrared spectroscopy. This research will extend Professor Marshall's extensive investigations of the very powerful method of FT/ICR/MS for the characterization of small amounts of material which can be selected and studied according to their mass. Advances in this area will allow a better understanding of the fundamental chemistry that occurs between ions and molecules in the gas phase. This will allow for improved methods of analysis of trace contaminants in a wide variety of sample types.
