Applications of Time-of-Flight and Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry in Environmental, Food, Doping, and Forensic Analysis

Book excerpt: Applications of Time-of-Flight and Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry in Environmental, Food, Doping, and Forensic Analysis deals with the use of high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) in the analysis of small organic molecules. Over the past few years, time-of-flight (ToF) and Orbitrap MS have both experienced tremendous growth in a great number of analytical sectors and are now well established in many laboratories where high requirements are placed on analytical performance. This book gives a head-to-head comparison of these two technologies that compete directly with each other. As users with hands-on experience in both techniques, the authors provide a balanced description of the strengths and weaknesses of both techniques. In the vast majority of cases, ToF-MS and Orbitrap-MS have been used for qualitative purposes, mainly identification of discrete molecular entities such as drug metabolites or transformation products of environmental contaminants. This paradigm is now changing as quantitative capabilities are increasingly being explored, as are non-target approaches for unbiased broad-scope screening. In view of the continuous innovation of high-resolution MS instrument manufacturers in designing and developing more powerful machines, technological advances in both hardware and software are considerable, with many novel applications. This book summarizes and analyzes these trends. The compilation of selected examples from diverse analytical fields will allow the readers to discover not only the potential of high-resolution MS in their sector, but also shows advances in other fields that rely on hi-res MS. - Provides comprehensive coverage of applications of time-of-flight and orbitrap mass spectrometry in environmental, food, doping, and forensic analysis - Explores a variety of specialized techniques, giving a balanced description of the strengths and weaknesses of each - Presents a general overview of imaging techniques within analysis