An Electrospray Method Using a Multi‐Capillary Nozzle Emitter

Abstract

A multi-capillary nozzle emitter consisting of one metal plate with capillary nozzles and a ring type counter electrode was used as a multi-electrospray atomizer. The number of capillary nozzles, flow rate of the liquid and the interval between the capillary nozzles were changed, and the droplet diameter and the voltage required for a steady cone-jet mode were measured. For the multi-capillary nozzle emitter, the interaction between the capillary nozzles is the important factor for obtaining fine droplets of uniform size. These fine droplets are obtained when there is only a small interaction between the capillary nozzles, and the equations obtained from the single capillary nozzle case are also applicable for the multicapillary nozzle emitter. When the number of capillary nozzles decreases (a situation which is not good for obtaining a large amount of droplets) or the interval between the capillary nozzles increases, the interaction between the capillary nozzles can be reduced. As the number of capillary nozzles increase, a higher voltage is required to obtain a fine droplet of uniform size.

Multinozzle Emitter Arrays for Nanoelectrospray Mass Spectrometry

“…26 For a sharpened-end 20-nozzle emitter, the optimal voltage was 3.5 kV, confirming the aforementioned internozzle interactions. 30 We observed that both the optimal voltage and MS sensitivity increased with nozzle numbers. For example, there was an on average ~2-fold increase in sensitivity for the 20-nozzle relative to the 1-nozzle emitters.…”

“…3a). This was due to the linear format of the nozzle array, the position of the nozzle array relative to the ion cone (Z-spray), the nozzle-nozzle interactions (shielding effects), 30 and the interactions between the emitter stem and the nozzles on the two edges (i.e., the edge effects). Consistently, we observed even higher electric fields at the corner of the nozzles on two edges, i.e., 6.6×10 6 (left corner, not labeled) vs. 5.8×10 6 (center, labeled)…”

Multinozzle Emitter Arrays for Nanoelectrospray Mass Spectrometry

“…3a). This was due to the linear format of the nozzle array, the position of the nozzle array relative to the ion cone (Z-spray), the nozzle-nozzle interactions (shielding effects), 30 and the interactions between the emitter stem and the nozzles on the two edges (i.e., the edge effects). Consistently, we observed even higher electric fields at the corner of the nozzles on two edges, i.e., 6.6×10 6 (left corner, not labeled) vs. 5.8×10 6 (center, labeled) for the leftmost nozzle; and 6.1×10 6 (right corner, not labeled) vs. 5.7×10 6 (center, labeled) for the rightmost nozzle, respectively (Fig.…”

Electrospray deposition of thin copper-indium-diselenide films

“…An important point which comes to mind at this point is that a spray diameter of 1.5 cm gives a spray area of just 1.76 cm 2 , which is small when viewed from the perspective of bulk manufacturing. The answer to this is multi-nozzle spray deposition [31,32] in which hundreds of nozzles are embedded in the system. The multi-nozzle setup also takes care of the dual spray region phenomenon as the mild regions of two adjacent nozzles will overlap (being at the periphery) and hence the concentration will double in the overlapping edge region thereby mitigating the drawback of dual spray region as well.…”