Network Activities



Dstl, Salisbury, UK

Team Leader: Dr. A.J. Bell
Organisational Experience: Technical leader for a government research group. Placing and running Ph.D and Postdoctoral contracts with Universities.
Research Experience: 15 years experience in physical chemistry. Has concentrated on optical spectroscopy and gas-phase ion-molecule reactions.
Network Role: The combination of IMS, SIFT and ITMS spectrometers allows a wide ranging study of ion-molecule chemistry in a wide variety of pressure regimes. The objective of the experiments is to study positive and negative ion/molecule reactions of relevance to atmospheric environmental chemistry. These studies will play an integral part in the design of any future ion-chemistry based atmospheric pollutant detectors. The experimental work will involve regular liaisons with the Garching and Amsterdam groups, who will be performing related experiments. Theoretical input will come from the Southampton and Lisbon groups. Team leader, A. J. Bell acts as Sub-coordinator of the ion-molecule aspect of the Network.
Staff Involved: Dr. A. J. Bell (6mm/year), Dr. J. Murrell (2mm/year), Dr C. Timperley (2mm/year) Dr. P. Watts (now RSG Consulting Ltd) (4mm/year)
Research Links: Collaboration with the Southampton group on gas-phase ion chemistry and mass spectrometry over the last 10 years.
Laboratory: The group has ESI lIon Trap Mass Spectrometers, a Quattro Triple Quadrupole MS and various ion mobility spectrometers coupled to quadrupole mass spectrometers for the study of ion-molecule chemistry at atmospheric pressure, and access to a Selected Ion Flow Tube (SIFT).
Two Significant Recent Publications:

1

 Fragmentations and reactions of three isotopically labelled dimethyl methylphosphonate ions produced by electrospray ionisation in an ion trap mass spectrometer.
J.D Barr, A.J. Bell, D. Konn, J. Murrell, C.M. Timperley, M.J. Waters, P. Watts
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 4, 2200-2205, 2002.

2

 Fragmentation and reactions of two isomeric O-alkyl S-(2-dialkylamino)ethyl methylphosphonothiolates studied by Electrospray Ionization/Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry.
A.J. Bell, J. Murrell, C.M. Timperley, and P. Watts
J.Am. Soc. M.S., 12(8), 902-910, 2001
Research Role: The Dstl (Salisbury) group has particular expertise in studying gas-phase ion-molecule reactions in many pressure regimes (ie 10-7 torr up to atmospheric pressure) and in analysing and modelling the complex kinetics that result. The main collaborations will be with the Garching group on ion chemistry and spectroscopy, and with the Southampton and Lisbon groups who will perform ab initio calculations on some of the systems studied at DERA. Close contact will also be maintained with the Amsterdam group and Dr. Baykut of Bruker-Daltonik GmbH.

© Crown Copyright 2002 Dstl