Mass Spectrometry

Mass spectrometry is a technique used by scientists to identify the mass to charge ratio of a chemical compound. This can assist in finding out the molecular weight, elemental composition, purity etc of a chemical sample. The technique often uses a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) as a start point to separate compounds based on their polarity before being passed through the destructive mass spectrometry instrument. In this section you will explore how a mass spectrometry instrument works, the differences between low- and high-resolution instruments and how the elemental composition of the compound can be determined.

Ions and Isotopes

In this short video, we cover the molecular ion region, multiple charged ions and isotopic abundance. We have highlighted why we get the ion peak shapes and how to you might begin an elemental composition using the outlined tools. To keep things simple, we have used Verapamil as our example throughout this series of talks.

Mass Resolution and Elemental Composition

What does the accurate mass of a compound tell us? What resolution of mass spectrometry instrument is needed to obtain this? Learn about mass accuracies and how this can aid the identification of fragmentation patterns of your compound. Verapamil has been used as the case study here.

It is advised that you watch “Ions and Isotopes” before watching this video.

Electrospray

Electrospray is the most commonly used source of ionisation in both medicinal chemistry and DMPK. Join Paul Scullion to learn about what is electrospray ionisation and how liquid chromatography conditions affects the response of the analyte.

Which Mass Analyser Should I Buy and Why?

How do you choose which mass spectrometry instrument to buy? What information do you need from the machine? This short video highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the machines to assist you to pick the best.

Bioanalysis for in-vitro assays

How and why do we prepare bioanalytical samples that have come from in vitro experiments? In this video, we will take you through both the microsomal clearance and MDCK permeability experiments.