CN-122000267-A - Time-of-flight mass spectrometry device

CN122000267ACN 122000267 ACN122000267 ACN 122000267ACN-122000267-A

Abstract

A TOFMS for preventing unnecessary time from occurring when proper temperature adjustment of a flight tube is impossible due to excessively low or high room temperature, and for realizing efficiency of analysis operation, comprises an ion emission unit (142), a flight tube (144) forming a space in which emitted ions fly, a vacuum chamber (1) having the flight tube enclosed therein, a temperature adjustment unit (151) for adjusting the temperature of the flight tube, a temperature control unit (22) for controlling the temperature adjustment operation of the temperature adjustment unit on the basis of the indirectly or directly measured temperature of the flight tube and a target temperature, wherein the TOFMS comprises a temperature sensor (153) for measuring the ambient temperature, which is the outside temperature of the vacuum chamber, a prediction unit (23) for predicting, on the basis of the ambient temperature and the target temperature, the possibility that the temperature of the flight tube does not reach the target temperature or fall within a predetermined allowable temperature range including the target temperature even when the temperature adjustment unit is used, and report units (24, 4) for reporting the user on the basis of the prediction result.

Inventors

KUDO TOMOYA

Assignees

株式会社岛津制作所

Dates

Publication Date: 20260508
Application Date: 20251029
Priority Date: 20241105

Claims (7)

1. A time-of-flight mass spectrometry device is provided with an ion emission unit, a flight tube forming a space in which ions emitted from the ion emission unit fly, a vacuum chamber in which the flight tube is housed, a temperature adjustment unit for adjusting the temperature of the flight tube, and a temperature control unit for controlling the temperature adjustment operation of the temperature adjustment unit based on the indirectly or directly measured temperature of the flight tube and a target temperature, and is characterized by comprising: A temperature sensor that measures an ambient temperature, which is a temperature outside the vacuum chamber; A prediction unit that predicts, based on the ambient temperature and the target temperature, a possibility that the temperature of the flight tube does not reach the target temperature or fall within a predetermined allowable temperature range including the target temperature even when the temperature adjustment by the temperature adjustment unit is used; And a reporting unit configured to report to a user based on a prediction result of the predicting unit.
2. The time-of-flight mass spectrometry device according to claim 1, further comprising a target temperature setting unit that changes the target temperature based on a result of prediction by the prediction unit.
3. The time-of-flight type mass spectrometry device according to claim 1, wherein the predicting portion predicts a possibility that the temperature of the flight tube does not reach the target temperature or falls within the predetermined allowable temperature range before or immediately after the temperature adjustment by the temperature adjusting portion is performed.
4. The time-of-flight mass spectrometry device according to claim 1, wherein the predicting unit predicts a possibility that the temperature of the flight tube does not reach the target temperature or falls within the predetermined allowable temperature range by comparing a difference between the ambient temperature and the target temperature with a predetermined determination reference value.
5. The time-of-flight mass spectrometry device according to claim 1, wherein the predicting unit predicts a possibility that the temperature of the flight tube does not reach the target temperature or falls within the predetermined allowable temperature range by assuming that the temperature adjusting unit operates within a range between a capacity lower than a maximum capacity by a predetermined margin and a capacity higher than a minimum capacity by a predetermined margin.
6. The time-of-flight mass spectrometry device according to claim 1, further comprising an in-flight prediction unit that predicts a possibility that the temperature of the flight tube deviates from the target temperature or from the allowable temperature range based on the ambient temperature, the target temperature, and the temperature of the flight tube during execution of temperature adjustment by the temperature adjustment unit after the temperature of the flight tube reaches the target temperature or falls within the predetermined allowable temperature range, wherein the reporting unit reports to a user based on a result of the prediction by the in-flight prediction unit.
7. The time-of-flight mass spectrometry device according to claim 6, wherein the in-flight prediction unit predicts a time required until the temperature of the flight tube deviates from the target temperature or the allowable temperature range, and the reporting unit reports the predicted time to a user.

Description

Time-of-flight mass spectrometry device Technical Field The invention relates to a Time-of-flight type mass spectrometry (TOFMS). Background In the TOFMS, generally, a constant kinetic energy is applied to an ion to be analyzed in an ion ejection unit, and the ion is introduced into a flight space formed in a flight tube and flown in the flight space. Then, the time required for the ion to fly a constant distance is measured, and the mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) of the ion is calculated based on the time of flight. Therefore, in order to achieve higher mass accuracy in the TOFMS, it is important to keep the flight distance constant. If the flight tube expands or contracts due to temperature changes, the flight distance changes, resulting in a decrease in mass accuracy. Accordingly, in the TOFMS described in patent documents 1 and 2, a temperature adjusting portion including a heater is provided outside a vacuum chamber in which a flight tube is enclosed, and the flight tube is indirectly heated by using the temperature adjusting portion so that the temperature of the flight tube detected directly or indirectly becomes a target temperature (45 ℃ in the example described in patent document 2). However, the heating capacity of the heater is limited, and thus if the room temperature is too low, the flight tube may not reach the target temperature. Conversely, if the room temperature is too high, the flight tube temperature may exceed the target temperature. Therefore, in the conventional TOFMS, a countermeasure is taken to detect whether or not the flight tube temperature falls within a predetermined allowable temperature range including the target temperature, and if the flight tube temperature does not fall within the allowable temperature range even after a predetermined time, a temperature adjustment error (timeout error) is displayed to call the attention of the user. Prior art literature Patent literature Patent document 1 International publication No. 2019/224948 Patent document 2 International publication No. 2019/220497 Disclosure of Invention Technical problem to be solved by the invention Typically, the thermal capacity of the vacuum chamber or flight tube is very large, with a large thermal time constant. Therefore, a considerable time (for example, several tens of hours) is required from the temperature adjustment start time point of the flight tube until the temperature of the flight tube reaches around the target temperature and stabilizes. Therefore, the predetermined time for determining the timeout error is set to be quite long, and the ambient temperature is found to be too low or too high due to the display of the timeout error, and sometimes after several tens of hours have elapsed from the start-up of the apparatus. In this case, the user waits for a long time in vain, and therefore the efficiency of analyzing the job is lowered. The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and a main object of the present invention is to provide a TOFMS that can properly regulate the temperature of a flight tube to ensure high quality accuracy, and that can reduce unnecessary work time associated with the regulation of the temperature, thereby achieving an improvement in the efficiency of analysis work. Solution to the above technical problems An aspect of the present invention is a TOFMS including an ion emitting portion, a flight tube forming a space for flying ions emitted from the ion emitting portion, a vacuum chamber in which the flight tube is housed, a temperature adjusting portion for adjusting the temperature of the flight tube, and a temperature control portion for controlling a temperature adjusting operation of the temperature adjusting portion based on an indirectly or directly measured temperature of the flight tube and a target temperature, the TOFMS including: A temperature sensor that measures an ambient temperature, which is a temperature outside the vacuum chamber; A prediction unit that predicts, based on the ambient temperature and the target temperature, a possibility that the temperature of the flight tube does not reach the target temperature or fall within a predetermined allowable temperature range including the target temperature even when the temperature adjustment by the temperature adjustment unit is used; And a reporting unit configured to report to a user based on a prediction result of the predicting unit. Effects of the invention In the TOFMS according to the above aspect of the present invention, for example, the reporting unit may report a warning to the user when it is predicted that the temperature of the flight tube does not fall (does not reach) within the allowable temperature range even when the temperature adjustment by the temperature adjustment unit is used is high in an initial stage of the analysis preparation work before the temperature adjustment of the flight tube starts. Thus, according to the present invention, the user can g