SprayDx: A New Tool for Gradient LC-MS Method Development

Ionization variability is a frequent challenge in LC-MS, especially with electrospray ionization. Developing LC gradients that achieve both effective analyte separation and minimize interference in ion formation remains difficult. A key obstacle is the inability to clearly visualize the chromatographic peaks caused by interfering substances. SprayDx addresses this issue by monitoring cluster ions, providing real-time insight into ionization changes during method development.
Atmospheric pressure ionization inherently generates solvent clusters or solvated ions. These clusters are disrupted through heating and collisions with background gas as they enter the mass spectrometer. This declustering process yields the ions detected by the instrument. By configuring the mass spectrometer to monitor the remnants of these original clusters, changes in ion formation can be visualized without the need for post column addition or addtion of a tracer to the mobile phase, producing a chromatographic signal that guides LC method development.
The data demonstrate how using SprayDx can speed up LC-MS method development, build quantitative methods free from ionization interferences and efficiently generate higher quality LC-MS methods for trace analysis of complex samples.