Characterization of two polyphosphazene materials as membranes in membraneinduction mass spectrometry

Membrane introduction mass spectrometry (MIMS) has made large strides in ca pability improvement since its introduction. The main progress has been in systematic design changes that has allowed this technique to measure analyt es in the parts-per-trillion range, samples that have had no special handli ng or pre-treatment. In spite of these improvements, however, the most impo rtant component of MIMS--the membrane--has not been optimized. In this pape r, the results of testing two polyphosphazene polymers is reported and comp ared with those of silicone rubber. The results show that the rich chemical diversity possible with the phosphazene materials and their tailorability, make them good candidates for MIMS applications. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.