Effect of Traveling Waveform Profiles on Collision Cross Section Measurements in Structures for Lossless Ion Manipulations

We evaluated the effect of four different waveform profiles (Square, Sine, Triangle, and asymmetric Sawtooth) on the accuracy of collision cross section (CCS) measurements using traveling wave ion mobility spectrometry (TWIMS) separations in structures for lossless ion manipulations (SLIM). The effects of the waveform profiles on the accuracy of the CCS measurements were evaluated for four classes of compounds (lipids, peptides, steroids, and nucleosides) at different TW speeds (126–206 m/s) and amplitudes (15–89 V). For the lipids and peptides, the TWIMS-based CCS ( TW CCS) deviations from the corresponding drift-tube-based CCS ( DT CCS) measurements were significantly lower in experiments conducted using the Sawtooth waveform compared to the square waveform. This observation can be rationalized by the lower maximum electric field experienced by ions with a Sawtooth waveform, as compared to the other waveforms, resulting in a lower probability for significant ion heating. We also observed that given approximately comparable resolution for all four waveforms, the Sawtooth waveform resulted in lower TW CCS error and a better agreement with DT CCS values than the Square waveform. In addition, for the steroids and nucleosides, an opposite TW CCS trend was observed, with higher errors with the Sawtooth waveform and lower with the Square waveform, suggesting that these molecules tend to become slightly more compact under ion heating conditions. Under optimum conditions, all TW CCS measurements on the SLIM platform were within 0.5% of those measured in the drift tube ion mobility spectrometry.