Investigation of the advanced functionalities of a hybrid quadrupole orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometer

Time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ToF-MS) has gained wide acceptance in many fields of chemistry, proteomics, metabolomics and small molecule analysis. ToF-MS, however, has some inherent advantages and drawbacks. Numerous developments have been made to hybrid ToF instruments to improve their capabilities. We have used a quadrupole orthogonal acceleration ToF (Q-oa-ToF) instrument to assess developments made to improve resolution, dynamic range and signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios (i.e. sensitivity). Higher mass resolution can improve the analysis of mixtures containing compounds with similar m/z values and improved mass accuracy gives greater confidence for structural elucidation applications. Wide dynamic ranges are necessary for the analysis of unknown samples or samples that vary widely in analyte concentrations. The performance of the advanced functionalities for routine structural elucidation in terms of resolution, dynamic range and S/N ratios was investigated using test compounds. The results presented in this work demonstrate and validate the use of these new enhancements for Q-ToF instruments and also show their limitations. Copyright (0 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.