INVESTIGATION OF THE POSSIBILITY OF USING THE LIQUID SURFACE AS AN ELECTRODE FOR COLLECTING PRODUCTS OF CHEMICAL REACTIONS OCCURRING IN THE ELECTROSPRAY TORCH MICRODROPLETS
The present work is devoted to the study of the possibility of electrospray onto the surface of a liquid in order to accumulate the products of reactions occurring in micro- and nanodroplets of the electrospray torch. The experimental device was made for research purposes. A stable mode of electrospray of a water-ethanol mixture (1:4) onto a liquid electrode (water-ethanol mixture (1:4)), without using sputting gas, was obtained at a spray voltage U of at least 4 kV and a distance between the spray needle and the surface of the liquid R of no more than 15 mm. The spray current increased as the distance between the spray needle and the surface of the liquid electrode decreased and the spray voltage increased. A stable mode of electrospray of the reaction mixture (4 ml of a mixture of acetonitrile and 0.2 % formic acid solution in water (1: 1), 0.5 ml of aniline and 0.5 ml of acetone) onto the surface of the liquid electrode (mixture of 6 ml of acetonitrile and 6 ml of 0.2 % formic acid solution in water or a mixture of 6 ml of acetonitrile and 6 ml of water) with the use of the sputting gas was obtained with the following values of the parameters of the experimental device: the flow rate of the spray solution Qp = = 100 μL / min, the spray voltage U = 3.2 kV, the distance between the surface of the liquid electrode and the spray needle R = 35 mm. The maximum flow rate of the sputting gas was 2 L/min. Unreacted substances and the chemical reactions products of the components of the sprayed reaction mixture accumulated in the liquid electrode when the given values of the parameters of the device were used. This was confirmed by spectrophotometric measurements.