With a hand-held device that detects infinitesimal traces of airborne chemicals, farmers could screen produce for pesticide residue or bacterial contamination, industries could safeguard local communities from harmful pollutants, and the armed forces could root out treaty-busting chemical weapons. Research that can produce highly sensitive and portable detectors got a formidable boost this month with the establishment of a national center that brings together top researchers in the field.
This month, the U.S. Department of Energy Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) committed $1.7 million to establish a collaborative Center for Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS Center) based in Idaho Falls. Ion mobility spectrometry is a growing area of fundamental and applied research that has potential applications in such diverse spheres as agriculture, environmental management, and drug discovery -- wherever trace molecules need to be detected and identified.
Veteran ion mobility researchers from INEEL, Washington State University, New Mexico State University and Montana State University will contribute expertise, equipment and personnel to better understand the fundamental basis of ion mobility spectrometry and to develop new applications to further exploit this technology.
The center's director, INEEL analytical chemist David Atkinson, said it is a good time to pool available resources. "There are very few research groups who study ion mobility spectrometry in detail," he said. "We are bringing together four of the best."
Since its aggregate expertise in ion mobility spectrometry fills a specific technical niche in the analytical chemistry field, the IMS Center is developing an affiliation with the Center for Process Analytical Chemistry (CPAC). Based at the University of Washington, CPAC is a consortium of industrial sponsors and several national laboratories and government agencies that addresses challenges in the application of process analytical chemistry. This relationship allows CPAC to exploit the analytical chemistry expertise in the IMS Center and allows the center to take advantage of CPAC's successful working relationships with industries beset by analytical chemistry challenges.
Currently, ion mobility technology is most often used for detecting explosives, illicit drugs and chemical warfare agents. For example, many airports use detectors based on ion mobility spectrometry to combat terrorism -- a swipe from the outside of a suspicious bag can be tested quickly for the presence of explosives.
Atkinson said that leaves many uses unrealized and even unknown. "Most of the past work has been very focused," he said. "Historically, IMS instruments have been designed around a specific problem. This limits the flexibility of the instrument. Our goal is to expand the utility into new areas." By drawing together ion mobility spectrometry expertise, the IMS Center will advance fundamental research, develop novel instrument enhancements, and find new applications for which ion mobility spectrometry can provide an analytical improvement.
This type of spectrometry recognizes chemicals based on how quickly they move in an electric field after being given an electrical charge (or being ionized). The mobility of an ionized molecule in the field is influenced by its size and shape, so measuring its mobility can divulge its identity. Key to using ion mobility spectrometry is understanding how ion mobility translates into chemical identity, as well as how ion mobility is affected by interactions between ions and molecules in the gas phase. Also, some molecules, due to their chemical make-up, are not easily ionized and detected by ion mobility spectrometry; IMS Center researchers are developing new ways to tackle that problem.
The potential advantages of ion mobility spectrometry are numerous. This type of spectrometry works best on low concentrations of molecules, making it uniquely suited for field measurements of hard-to-detect molecules like pesticides and environmental contaminants. Because it resolves ions in the gas phase instead of liquid, it also promises a simpler design and less waste than other identification methods, resulting in lower cost and greater portability.
The three universities will contribute differently to the IMS Center. The research group at Montana State University, headed by chemists Eric Grimsrud and Berk Knighton, studies the fundamentals of ion-molecule interactions in the gas phase.
At Washington State University, the group led by chemist Herbert H. Hill works on instrument design and development. They also study ion mobility of macromolecules, molecules such as proteins that are hundreds of times larger than pesticides or illegal drugs. Being able to identify and separate large molecules based on the shapes they assume in the gas phase will allow this technology to compete with other separation methods like chromatography and mass spectrometry.
Chemist Gary Eiceman, at New Mexico State University, leads a group that works on both the chemistry of ion mobility and instrument development. "New Mexico State has traditionally bridged the gap between MSU and WSU," said Atkinson. "They've developed a lot of diverse applications in the past 10 years." Included are examination of the material that municipal incinerators discharge known as fly ash; and a small, specialized instrument to detect a component of rocket fuel, hydrazine, in the air that astronauts breathe within the Space Shuttle.
INEEL's expertise, said Atkinson, spans all of these areas. "We can do some of the things that they can't do, and the universities offer some things that the national lab can't do," he said. "We were already working with the universities on small projects, so we thought we should pull them together. Rather than working on individual projects, it allows us to work on bigger problems. It allows the strengths of the universities and the lab to really shine through."
At a meeting of the collaborators this coming April, the future of the IMS Center will be plotted out. "We will ask," said Atkinson, "where do we want the technology to be 10 years from now, and what do we have to do to get there?"
The IMS Center welcomes other university and industrial partners. Contact Dave Atkinson at 208-526-9745; bigdog@inel.gov.
INEEL celebrates its 50 year anniversary in 1999. The national laboratory is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Company.
Contact: Mary Beckman
208-526-0061
beckmt@inel.gov
Note to Editors: Dave Atkinson can be reached by phone at 208-526-9745 or via email at bigdog@inel.gov.