A Novel Mass Spectrometer for Energetic Materials Decomposition Chemistry

Decomposition studies of energetic materials require rapid (microsecond resulution), highly sensitive detection of a plethora of reaction intermediates and products. The detection system must be able to distinguish among numerous compounds in real time without using traditional methods of chromatographic separation. The proposing company, Southwest Sciences, has invented an improved mass spectrometer that will be particularly useful for studying decomposition of energetic materials. The approach, called ionization energy modulated mass spectrometry (IEMMS), combines conventional mass spectral data with information about the appearance potentials of the ions to generate a two-dimensional spectrum in order to identify the difference species produced. Microsecond time resolution is possible. IEMMS should provide complementary information to the diagnostic techniques (primarily step-scanned Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) now used in mechanistic and kenetic studies of energetic material decomposition chemistry. The Phase I effort will demonstrate the usefulness of IEMMS by analyzing binary mixtures of key compounds that cannot usually be distinguished by conventional mass spectrometry and/or cannot be detected readily using optical spectroscopy. The Phase II project will culminate in the construction, testing, and delivery to the Air Force Research Laboratory of an ionization energy modulated mass spectrometer configured with a pulsed pyrolysis source.