Plasticizer contamination from vacuum system o-rings in a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer

The outgassing of plasticizers from Buna-N and Viton o-rings under vacuum lead to undesired ion-molecule chemistry in an Electrospray Quadrupole Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer. In experiments with the helium bath gas pressure >1.2 mTorr, or whenever analyte ions were stored for >100 ms, extensive loss of analyte ions by proton transfer or adduction with o-ring plasticizers bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and bis(2-ethylhexyl) adipate occurred. A temporary solution to this contamination problem was found to be overnight refluxing in hexane of all the o-rings in the vacuum system. This procedure alleviated this plasticizer contamination for similar to100 hours of operation. These results, and those that lead to identification of the contamination as plasticizers outgassing from o-rings are described. (C) 2002 American Society for Mass Spectrometry.