What is LC-MS?
Liquid Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry allows separation of complex mixtures of non-volatile compounds before introduction to the mass spectrometer. It is used extensively for compounds that have a high molecular weight or are too sensitive to heat to be analyzed by GC. The most common ionization methods that are interfaced to LC are ESI and Atmospheric Chemical Ionization (APCI) in positive and negative-ion modes. The LC is done in most cases by RP(reverse-phase)-HPLC, and the buffer system should not contain involatile salts (e.g., phosphates). ESI can be used for m/z 500-4000 and is done at low resolving power. LC-MS can be used to look at a wide variety of biologically important compounds including, peptides, proteins, oligonucleotides, and lipids.
