Conductive carbon filled polymeric electrodes: novel ion optical elements for time-of-flight mass spectrometers.

A new technique employing conductive polymeric electrodes for the generation of linear electric fields is proposed and validated. A hollow cylinder comprised of DuPont's Vespel SP-22, a polymer loaded with conductive carbon particles, is used to enhance the performance of a hybrid reflectron compared to a conventional dual stage gridless reflectron composed of discrete metal ring electrodes. Both devices have comparable physical dimensions and nearly identical ion optical properties. Instrumental resolution measurements are used to validate this novel design.