Overtone mobility spectrometry: part 2. Theoretical considerations of resolving power.

The transport of ions through multiple drift regions is modeled to develop an equation that is useful for an understanding of the resolving power of an overtone mobility spectrometry (OMS) technique. It is found that resolving power is influenced by a number of experimental variables, including those that define ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) resolving power: drift field (E), drift region length (L), and buffer gas temperature (T). However, unlike IMS, the resolving power of OMS is also influenced by the number of drift regions (n), harmonic frequency value (m), and the phase number (Phi) of the applied drift field. The OMS resolving power dependence upon the new OMS variables (n, m, and Phi) scales differently than the square root dependence of the E, L, and T variables in IMS. The results provide insight about optimal instrumental design and operation.