Expanding mass spec molecular detection

Electrochemical systems can be integrated with most mass spectrometer or LCMS systems and used as a powerful tool to oxidise/ionise many different types of compounds

ESA says it has successfully employed its electrochemical systems in conjunction with a mass spectrometer to greatly expand the number and types of molecules for analysis.

The EC systems (Coulochem, CoulArray and DiscovArray) are easily integrated with most mass spectrometer or LCMS systems and can be used as a powerful tool to oxidise/ionise many different types of compounds, the company says.

Many bio-analytical groups suffer from having to analyse a number of poorly ionising compounds or samples in a mass spectrometer.

Typical ionisation sources (electrospray, APCI, or even APPI) are often not enough to ionise so-called 'difficult' compounds for analysis.

This necessitates a lengthy and risky derivatisation project in order to analyse such compounds.

Another problem is that the mass spectrometer by itself may be unable to analyse every component of a sample containing multiple compounds.

To address these issues, ESA EC systems utilise very simple oxidation reactions to ionise, or otherwise oxidise, compounds to make them amenable to MS analysis.

The EC systems are utilised in-line with the mass spectrometer to ionise or otherwise react poorly ionising compounds.

These simple systems allow researchers to visualise even more types of compounds and components in their samples than they can today with their MS alone.

The application of EC systems to mass spectrometers represents a very exciting development in the field of mass spectrometry, says ESA, representing a major enhancement of the capabilities of any mass spectrometer.

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