GC/MS-TOF technology

GC/MS TOF technology

Why choose the Fast GC/MS technique?

The requirements of laboratories are constantly increasing and their main interest is:

• fast analyzes (higher capacity and therefore efficiency & lower analysis costs)
• low detection limits (due to the requirements of new methods)
• high data quality associated with increasingly complex matrices

Multidimensional (comprehensive) GC technique, i.e. GCxGC/MS has huge advantages precisely for complex samples, where standard quadrupole systems fail both due to their speed and their limitations in the area of sensitivity in the full m/z range. Many real samples in the work have already shown that additional compounds that were not identified and misinterpreted by the standard GC/MS technique were detected in control analyzes by GCxGC/MS.

Description of GC/MS-TOF

TOF vs. quadrupole analyzer

GC/MS-TOF Description

The most commonly used mass spectrometers in gas chromatography are systems based on quadrupole analyzers. Other analyzers used in GC/MS are ion traps. Both analyzers used the same principle. Four poles are connected into the electrical circuit that generates radiofrequency field. Change of this electrical field enables to generate scanning in time. Fragments comming from ion source through ion optics enters the analyzer. The ions separation is accomplished by applying alternating RF frequency and DC voltage to diagonally opposite ends of the quadrupole, which in turn allows aspecific mass fragment to pass through the quadrupole filter.

Picture 1: Scheme of quadrupole analyzer