What is gas chromatography mass spec test?
The Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) instrument separates chemical mixtures (the GC component) and identifies the components at a molecular level (the MS component). It is one of the most accurate tools for analyzing environmental samples.
What is the difference between mass spectrometry and gas chromatography?
Both methods separate the chemicals by chromatography first, then further examine and identify them by the mass spectrometer. The only difference is that LC-MS uses a solvent as its mobile phase, while GC-MS uses inert gases (like helium) in the same capacity.
Why Gas chromatography is used in combination with mass spectrometry?
Analyzing small and volatile molecules When combined with the detection power of mass spectrometry (MS), GC-MS can be used to separate complex mixtures, quantify analytes, identify unknown peaks and determine trace levels of contamination.
What can GC-MS detect?
GC-MS can be used for the bioanalysis of body fluids to detect narcotics, barbiturates, alcohols, and drugs such as anticonvulsants, anesthetics, antihistamines, sedative hypnotics, and anti-epileptic drugs. It is also useful in detecting pollutants and metabolites in serum and in fatty acid profiling in microbes.
Why the combination of GC and mass spectrometry is so powerful?
When GC is combined with MS, a powerful analytical tool is created. A researcher can take an organic solution, inject it into the instrument, separate the individual components, and identify each of them. Furthermore, the researcher can determine the quantities (concentrations) of each of the components.
How accurate is GCMS?
The accuracy of the GC/MS confirmatory test is virtually 100% from a scientific standpoint. With the use of this two-step process and professional, accredited laboratories to eliminate human error in the process, there should be no concern regarding the accuracy of drug tests.
What is an advantage of GC MS?
One of the major advantages of GC-MS compared to LC-MS is the high reproducibility of generated mass spectra using EI. The electron impact ionization process, used in GC-MS, is a hard ionization that results in the production of very reproducible mass spectra from one instrument to another.
Which is better LC-MS or GC-MS?
The only difference is that LC-MS uses a solvent as its mobile phase, while GC-MS uses inert gases (like helium) in the same capacity. 3. GC-MS is the preferred standard for forensic identification, and it is also the preferred machine in terms of costs and operation.
