US 11,953,478 B2
Agnostic compound elution determination
Nic G. Bloomfield, Newmarket (CA); Lyle Lorrence Burton, Woodbridge (CA); John Lawrence Campbell, Milton (CA); David M. Cox, Toronto (CA); Eva Duchoslav, Toronto (CA); and Adam San-Ho Lau, Markham (CA)
Assigned to DH Technologies Development Pte. Ltd., Singapore (SG)
Appl. No. 17/593,349
Filed by DH TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT PTE. LTD., Singapore (SG)
PCT Filed Mar. 10, 2020, PCT No. PCT/IB2020/052060
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 16, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/194095, PCT Pub. Date Oct. 1, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/822,096, filed on Mar. 22, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0187260 A1, Jun. 16, 2022
Int. Cl. H01J 49/00 (2006.01); G01N 30/72 (2006.01); G01N 30/86 (2006.01); H01J 49/04 (2006.01); H01J 49/16 (2006.01); H01J 49/42 (2006.01); H01J 49/44 (2006.01)
CPC G01N 30/8631 (2013.01) [G01N 30/7206 (2013.01); G01N 30/7233 (2013.01); H01J 49/0031 (2013.01); H01J 49/0418 (2013.01); H01J 49/167 (2013.01); H01J 49/4225 (2013.01); H01J 49/446 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. Apparatus for detecting the separation of an unknown compound from a sample, comprising:
a separation device that separates each of one or more unknown compounds from a sample over a separation time period based on a property of the one or more unknown compounds;
an ion source device that ionizes separated compounds received from the separation device, producing one or more compound precursor ions for each of the one or more unknown compounds and a plurality of background precursor ions;
a mass spectrometer that includes a mass analyzer, wherein the mass analyzer measures a precursor ion mass spectrum for the combined compound and background precursor ions received from the ion source device at each time step of a plurality of time steps spread across the separation time period, producing a plurality of precursor ion mass spectra, wherein the mass spectrometer selects one or more background precursor ions from the plurality of precursor ion mass spectra that have a resolving power in a range below a threshold resolving power expected for the mass analyzer, and wherein the mass spectrometer detects a separation time for one of the one or more unknown compounds when a decrease in an intensity measurement of the one or more selected background precursor ions over a time period exceeds a threshold decrease in intensity with respect to time.