Equipment

Time of flight mass spectrometry

Time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) is a method of mass spectrometry in which ions mass-to-charge ratio is determined via a time measurement.

Applications include:

Accurate mass measurements to determine elemental composition, high sensitivity MS and MS/MS measurements. Often coupled with liquid chromatography. Can be effectively linked with ion mobility separation (IMS) due to speed of analysis (micro seconds).

Ion mobility mass spectrometry

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS-MS) is an analytical technique used to separate and identify ions in the gas phase based on their ion mobility in a buffer gas and detect via a mass detector.

Applications include:

Rapid (ms) separation of ions based on shape, mass and charge. Protein structural studies, additional dimension in proteomics, ambient ionisation approaches, small molecule separation.

Ambient ionisation mass spectrometry, including direct analysis in real-time (DART)

Ambient ionisation is a form of ionization in which ions are formed outside the mass spectrometer without sample preparation or separation. Direct analysis in real time (DART) is an atmospheric pressure ion source that operates by exposing the sample to a gas stream (typically helium or nitrogen) that contains long-lived electronically or excited neutral atoms, vibronically excited molecules.

Applications include:

Organic compounds, synthetic polymers, oligonucleotides, oligosaccharides, lipids.

Gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS)

Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is an instrumental technique, comprising a gas chromatograph (GC) coupled to a mass spectrometer (MS), by which complex mixtures of chemicals may be separated, identified and quantified. This makes it ideal for the analysis of the hundreds of relatively low molecular weight compounds.

Applications include:

Metabolomics, environmental studies, trace analysis, forensics.

Ultra high pressure liquid chromatography

Ultra high pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) typically using 1.7 micron column particle size provides significantly more resolution (information) while reducing run times, and improves sensitivity for the analyses of many compound types.

High pressure liquid chromatography

High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) is typically used to separate a mixture of compounds in analytical chemistry and biochemistry with the purpose of identifying, quantifying or purifying the individual components of the mixture. Some common examples are the separation and quantitation of performance enhancement drugs (e.g. steroids) in urine samples, or of vitamin D levels in serum.

Applications include:

Metabolomics, pharmaceutical analysis, environmental studies, trace analysis, forensics.

Triple quadruple mass spectrometry

A triple quadruple mass spectrometer is a tandem mass spectrometer consisting of two quadruple mass spectrometers in series, with a (non mass-resolving) radio frequency (RF) only quadruple between them to act as a collision cell for collision-induced dissociation.

Applications include:

Low-level quantification of analytes in complex matrices to ppm and ppb levels, confirmation or elucidation of chemical structures.

Ion trap mass spectrometry

The instrument is particularly useful for structural characterization of species due to its ability to perform multiple stage (MSn) ion fragmentation analyses (up to 10 stages), allowing ion-mapping experiments to be conducted. It is also useful for analysis of high mass species that form multiply charged ions with ESI (such as proteins, peptides) due to the post-acquisition de-convolution capability of the operating software.

Applications include:

Full-scan MS/MS analysis, analysis of low-abundance compounds in matrices, consecutive reaction monitoring.