Mix Masters: Using a New Tool to Identify Commonly Occurring Chemical Mixtures

Mass spectrometry is an important technique for the identification of pure compounds. However, it has some limitations for the analysis of complex mixtures, often due to excessive fragmentation making the spectrum too complicated to decipher. Mass spectrometry can be combined with suitable separation methods in sequence, forming hyphenated methods, which are useful in the analysis of complex mixtures.
GC–MS is a powerful hyphenated method commonly used in forensics and environmental...

Tandem mass spectrometry is a technique that uses multiple mass analyzers in series to obtain a higher selectivity and reduce chemical noise during analyte detection. Instruments with multiple analyzers separated by an interaction cell enable secondary fragmentation and selected study of the fragment ions.Secondary fragmentations occur in the interaction cell and can be induced by various factors. Fragmentation induced by collision with inert gases, such as N2, Ar, He, etc., is called...