Abstract:

Linear electroseparations in vacuum, gas phase and liquid phase have created mass spectrometry, ion mobility spectrometry, electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis. However, they have not systematized yet, developing independently, with their own theory, not related to each other. In this paper, unified motion equations were derived from the second law of Newtonian mechanics combined with electrostatic theory. From them, the general sub-equations of motion and measurement modes of all the above-mentioned methods were deduced and discussed briefly. These equations are not only helpful to systematize these existing methods but also are usable to deduce and discover novel electro-separation modes.

Key words: mass spectrometry (MS), ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), electrophoresis, capillary electrophoresis (CE), unified theory