Chromatography Techniques

Chromatography & Mass Spectrometry

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Liquid chromatography is a fundamental separation technique in the life sciences and related fields of chemistry. Unlike gas chromatography, which is unsuitable for non-volatile and thermally fragile molecules, liquid chromatography can safely separate a very wide range of organic compounds, from small-molecule drug metabolites to peptides and proteins. Traditional detectors for liquid chromatography include refractive index, electrochemical, fluorescence, and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) detectors. Some of these generate two-dimensional data; that is, data representing signal strength as a function of time. Others, including fluorescence and diode array UV-Vis detectors, generate three dimensional data. Three-dimensional data include not only signal strength but spectral data for each point in time.

Mass spectrometers also generate three-dimensional data. In addition to signal strength, they generate mass spectral data that can provide valuable information about the molecular weight, structure, identity, quantity, and purity of a sample. Mass spectral data add specificity that increases confidence in the results of both qualitative and quantitative analyses.