Is a Homemade Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer Possible?

[Ravaner]

Hi,

I'm a french (old) amateur scientist developping an homemade TOF mass spectrometer and I'll be pleased to know other amateur realizations in this area. I've found an homemade TEM on the web, and that's all. If someone has already tried to built such a device or know a site where I can find interesting details it will be of great help for me. Thanks by advance.

 

[Stanley.P.]

RE:
Homemade Mass Spectrometer
Hi,

I'm a french (old) amateur scientist developping an homemade TOF mass spectrometer and I'll be pleased to know other amateur realizations in this area. I've found an homemade TEM on the web, and that's all. If someone has already tried to built such a device or know a site where I can find interesting details it will be of great help for me. Thanks by advance.

Good afternoon,

I have seen some schematics on the web. A TOF mass spectrometer is a instrument, that separate the ions in time-of-flight, and measure the mass. Other words, I've found TOFMS
(Time-of-flight mass spectrometry) on the web. Please see this web sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-of-flight_mass_spectrometry

www.bioacademy.gr/.../courses/Helsinki%207_11May07_projects/Introduction%20to%20Mass%20Spectrometry.pdf[/URL]

[PLAIN]www.dmoz.org/Science/Chemistry/Analytical/Mass_Spectrometry/[/URL]

[url]www.gcms.de/mass.html[/url]

[PLAIN]www.umiacs.umd.edu/~nedwards/teaching/BCHM676_Spring_2007/student_presentations/Engelmann.ppt[/URL]

 

[pixel01]

Hi,

I'm a french (old) amateur scientist developping an homemade TOF mass spectrometer and I'll be pleased to know other amateur realizations in this area. I've found an homemade TEM on the web, and that's all. If someone has already tried to built such a device or know a site where I can find interesting details it will be of great help for me. Thanks by advance.

The first time I hear about an amateur who think of building a TOF. It's exciting

 

[Ravaner]

Hi,

Yes it's not so frequent to find amateur developping such scientific instruments, and may be especially in Europe. But in USA there are a lot of other "crazy" guys who built such equipments and I think for example to Fred Niell who has built an homemade linear accelerator and a really wonderful cyclotron !

 

[chemretd]

How about a quadrupole design - I think this would be less challenging for home - construction.

 

[fyzxman-3]

I too am interested in constructing amateur scientific instruments. I found Fred Niell's accomplishments truly amazing. A quadrupole MS would come in great use and if anyone has some suggestions on how to get started in practical terms, I am interested as well as a bunch of others out there. Where did you find the TEM on the web?

Thanks.

 

[michaelc187]

Before you jump into this, all you need is a facy camera. break down the the oscillations of light emitted from the object -at a certain temp- by the color emitted, ie what color it is.

Start with a picture, (internet ?) -break it down according to color (microsoft paint), -break it down according to a given temperature (heat picture, if you want to be scientific)

start from there.

 

[K^2]

How about a quadrupole design - I think this would be less challenging for home - construction.

I don't know... The tube might be simpler, but it's a lot easier to build a TOF detector than quadrupole detector. With TOF, if you managed the vacuum tube and the anode, all you have to do is hook up the cathode to an oscilloscope and that's basically your TOF spectrum.