Benefits of IMS

Benefits of IMS

Reduction of chemical complexity

Ion mobility separation can help to reduce complexity in your mass spectra. It enables cleaner mass spectra to be obtained from analytes through general background reduction and separation of coeluting species of similar m/z values. This removal of background interference can be extremely useful in reducing ambiguity in structural elucidation following tandem MS experiments and for ambient/direct ionization approaches where there is no prior chromatography e.g. imaging.  

Maximizing peak capacity and selectivity

Overall system peak capacity is increased through the addition of IMS. Ion mobility can help separate structural isomers, isobaric species and more broadly species of differing charge state.  With the latest IMS technology, analytes of interest can be isolated according to their mobility for closer study. As a consequence, IMS-MS can be used to effectively analyze both complex mixtures and single-molecules, combining breadth of analysis with pinpoint precision.

Analytical flexibility to couple with other techniques

IMS-MS couples well with other separation techniques such as LC and GC. Ion mobility separation typically operates on the millisecond timescale, and consequently can be nested between chromatographic separation and Tof MS analysis. Thus, the benefits of IMS-MS for improved analysis of mixtures can be obtained without detriment to the already established complementarity of chromatography and MS. Moreover, hyphenating IMS with MS can reduce analysis by enabling the use of shorter chromatographic separations due to the added peak capacity.

CCS Information

IMS provides a characteristic and reproducible measure of an analyte’s structure through derived CCS values. CCS values can be used to increase confidence in identification of known compounds, and more generally IMS reduces interferences and improves S:N ratios. CCS can also serve as a valuable parameter in the identification of unknowns.

Top 5 reasons to use IMS-MS