Liquid Chromatography Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)

Liquid Chromatography Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) can be used for a wide variety of applications. The applications include identification confirmation of organic chemical compounds, chemical residue analysis, and trace level contamination or adulteration detection and quantitation.

LC-MS/MS separates chemical compounds using traditional liquid chromatography, the analytes are then directed into a series of quadrupoles where they are ionized as the molecular ion then fragmented and selected fragments are detected and quantified.

The determination of both molecular ion and fragment ions permits more accurate identification analysis than identification using molecular ion alone. The fragmentation voltage can be controlled to encourage more stable molecules to fragment increasing the number of compounds which can be identified by LC-MS/MS.

Instrumentation

Instrument is comprised of two components, a Shinadzu LC20AD Liquid Chromatograph interfaced to a Shimadzu DUIS 8050 Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer. The system has a dual source which can be operated in Electrospray Ionization (ESI) mode or Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization (APCI) mode, or a combination mode (DUIS). Fast polarity switching ( < 10 msecs) allows scanning in positive and negative mode in a single short run, and a high speed collision cell which improves the collision induced dissociation (CID) efficiency permitting stronger signal and lower detection limits.