title: Molar mass and molar mass distribution of polystyrene particle size standards.
abstract: Monodisperse polystyrene microspheres and nanospheres are often used as particle size standards for calibration of size-measuring instruments. They are potentially useful as the mass standards for particle mass spectrometry as well. We demonstrated in this work that it is possible to achieve high-precision mass determination for single polystyrene spheres using a quadrupole ion trap. We introduced the particles into the trap by laser-induced acoustic desorption and probed them with light scattering. Mass-to-charge ratios of the individual particles were determined from applied trap-driving frequencies, voltage amplitudes and the observed starlike oscillatory trajectories projected on the radial plane. Creation of one-electron differentials through charge-state changes by electron bombardment allowed determination for the absolute mass of a single trapped particle to a precision better than 0.1%. Both molar mass and molar mass distribution were deduced from a large number of measurements for NIST polystyrene particle size standards (SRMs 1690 and 1691). Our results are in excellent agreement with the size measurement for the 0.895-microm spheres (NIST SRM 1690), but a small discrepancy (4%) in number-average mass was found for the 0.269-microm spheres (NIST SRM 1691).
authors.affiliation: Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, P.O. Box 23-116, Taipei, Taiwan 106, R.O.C.
authors.forename: Wen-Ping
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Yi-Chang
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Chung-Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Huan-Cheng
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Chang