Nanoelectrospray emitter arrays providing interemitter electric field uniformity.

Arrays of electrospray ionization (ESI) emitters have been reported previously as a means of enhancing ionization efficiency or signal intensity. A key challenge when working with multiple, closely spaced ESI emitters is overcoming the deleterious effects caused by electrical interference among neighboring emitters. Individual emitters can experience different electric fields depending on their relative position in the array, such that it becomes difficult to operate all of the emitters optimally for a given applied potential. In this work, we have developed multi-nanoESI emitters arranged with a circular pattern, which enable the constituent emitters to experience a uniform electric field. The performance of the circular emitter array was compared to a single emitter and to a previously developed linear emitter array, which verified that improved electric field uniformity was achieved with the circular arrangement. The circular arrays were also interfaced with a mass spectrometer via a matching multicapillary inlet, and the results were compared with those obtained using a single emitter. By minimizing interemitter electric field inhomogeneities, much larger arrays having closer emitter spacing should be feasible.