Performance Simulation of Quadrupole Assemblies with DifferentParameters Over a Wide Mass Range

The continuous expansion of the application demand for quadrupole mass spectrometer has led to a rapid increase in the demand for quadrupole components. In order to meet the requirements, several fixed-size modular quadrupole components need to be developed, and different RF power supplies need to be designed to meet the application requirements. Based on the quadrupole electric field and ion motion theory, the ion optical simulation software SIMION was used to model and calculate the electric field distribution and ion motion trajectory. The simulation analysis results show that under the selected simulation parameters, the field radius mainly determines the shape of the ion transmission probability curve with high mass-to-charge ratio ions, and its impact on the transmission probability varies with different mass-to-charge ratio ions. The impact on resolution decreases as the mass-to-charge ratio increases. The smaller the mass-to-charge ratio, the longer the rod length required for stable ion separation. When the rod length is less than required, the transmission probability decreases with the increase of rod length, and the resolution pattern is opposite. An increase in the U/V will reduce the transmission probability, improve resolution, and have a greater impact on the high mass-to-charge ratio. The increase in frequency will improve the resolution of the wide mass-to-change ratios, increase the ion transmission probability of low mass-to-change ratio, but significantly reduce the ion transmission probability of high mass-to-charge ratio. Large-size quadrupole assembly is particularly suitable for low mass-to-charge ratio ion analysis, and measures must be taken to reduce the influence of edge fields when used for high mass-to-charge ratio ion analysis. The research results can provide a reference for the design of quadrupole mass spectrometers for different application purposes.