What Is a Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometer?

Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry means that the components in the sample are separated by high-performance liquid chromatography and introduced into the mass spectrometer through the applicable interface. They are ionized by the ion source into fragment ions with a certain mass-to-charge ratio. Separated and detected, the mass spectrum of a single component composed of fragment ions was obtained by computer processing, and the structural composition of the component was identified from the mass spectrum. The key to the connection of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry is to choose a suitable interface, that is, to perfectly connect chromatographic separation and gasification under atmospheric pressure with ionization under high vacuum conditions of mass spectrometry. The connection technology mainly includes atmospheric pressure ionization (API) technology, such as electrospray ionization (ESI), atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI), and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization technology (MALDI). The ESI and APCI interfaces are the most common interfaces in existing liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry instruments. The successful development of interface technology has made liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry widely used in the fields of biology, medicine, chemical industry, agriculture and environment. The combination of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry combines the effective separation of thermal instability and high-boiling compounds by liquid chromatography with the strong component identification ability of mass spectrometers, which has a wide range of applications. ^[1]