Ambient Soft Landing

 

 

Ambient ion soft landing of free gas-phase ions showing reaction at surfaces in the open laboratory environment

 

 

 

Apparatus used for ambient droplet landing for (i) droplet focusing and surface patterning, (ii) droplet/surface reactions and modification, and  (iii) capture of gas-phase analyte(s) and reaction in charged droplets at atmospheric pressure.

 

The ambient ion soft landing apparatus provides a nontraditional way of manipulating polyatomic ions at atmospheric pressure, and yields new chemical insights. For example, the surface reaction involving dry isolated 2,4,6-triphenylpyrylium cations and condensed solid-phase ethanolamine was found to regiospecifically produce the expected N-substituted pyridinium product ion via a pseudobase intermediate. In solution however, ethanolamine reacts through its N-centered and O-centered nucleophilic groups to generate two isomeric products via 2H-pyran intermediates.