Simulation of the collisional cooling effect in a quadrupole ion trap massspectrometer

Examination of the collisional cooling effect of the buffer gases on ion tr apping and detection in an ion trap mass spectrometer has been undertaken b y the SIMION 3D program. Computation for the kinetic energy of ions under v arious conditions was used to account for the effects of collisional coolin g of ions. Several parameters that may affect the collisional cooling effec ts of ions are evaluated including the existence and the variation of press ure of the buffer gas; the temperature of the ion trap; the size of the inn er radius of the ion trap electrodes; the mass to charge ratio of ions; the alternative buffer gases and the q(z) values which establish the ion trap trapping environment.