Does the Formation of a Taylor Cone in a Pulsating Electrospray Directly Impact Mass Spectrometry Signals?

Abstract

Electrospray ionization (ESI) remains the dominant technique in mass spectrometry (MS)-based analyses. Here, we investigated the relationship between a crucial aspect of ESI, the formation of the Taylor cone, and the MS ion current by utilizing a triple quadrupole (QqQ) mass spectrometer coupled with a streaming high-speed camera and a 3-ring electrode system. In one test, ion current over a 30-s plume gate (a ring electrode) opening was compared with the Taylor cone occurrence analyzed offline, with Spearman's correlation coefficients consistently near 0 despite parameter variations. In another test, real-time detection of Taylor cones was synchronized with QqQ-MS, selectively opening (de-energizing) the plume gate based on the Taylor cone status. This approach enabled matching the ion current with the Taylor cone occurrence. There was no apparent difference between the MS signals recorded in the presence and absence of a Taylor cone. Additionally, a Faraday plate was employed as a detector in offline experiments, revealing agreement between the frequency of liquid meniscus (Taylor cone) oscillation (∼1.92 kHz)�measured by high-speed imaging�and the frequency of spray current (∼1.93 kHz). We suggest that the lack of positive correlations in the MS experiments is due to intrinsic ion carryover during transit from the ion source to the detector and due to the insufficient data acquisition rate of the mass spectrometer, which erases short-term fluctuations of ion current.