Resolution and Resolving Power Studies Investigating the Separation Capabilities of Drift Tube and Traveling Wave Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometers

摘要

While significant strides have been achieved utilizing modern mass spectrometry techniques in analyzing complex biological samples, further degrees of separation may be desired for those mixtures involving isomeric systems. Biological isomers are ubiquitous in bioanalytical research, and since these systems are based on an identical chemical formula, the individual components are unable to be isolated through mass spectrometry methods alone. In light of this, ion mobility is utilized as a gas-phase separation of ions to separate compounds based on molecular size and charge in addition to mass-to-charge ratio. Here we investigate the nominal metrics for peak efficiency (resolving power) and discuss the potential separation capabilities of both traveling wave and drift tube ion mobility-mass spectrometers.