Time-resolved mass spectrometry (TRMS) is a strategy in

analytical chemistry Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separati ...

that uses

mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a '' mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is u ...

platform to collect data with

temporal resolution Temporal resolution (TR) refers to the discrete resolution of a measurement with respect to time. Physics Often there is a trade-off between the temporal resolution of a measurement and its spatial resolution, due to Heisenberg's uncertainty ...

. Implementation of TRMS builds on the ability of mass spectrometers to process ions within sub-second duty cycles. It often requires the use of customized experimental setups. However, they can normally incorporate commercial mass spectrometers. As a concept in

, TRMS encompasses instrumental developments (e.g. interfaces, ion sources, mass analyzers), methodological developments, and applications.

Applications

An early application of TRMS was in the observation of

flash photolysis Flash photolysis is a pump-probe laboratory technique, in which a sample is first excited by a strong pulse of light from a pulsed laser of nanosecond, picosecond, or femtosecond pulse width or by another short-pulse light source such as a fla ...

process. It took advantage of a time-of-flight mass analyzer. TRMS currently finds applications in the monitoring of organic reactions, formation of reactive intermediates,

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecule ...

-catalyzed reactions,

convection Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the c ...

protein folding Protein folding is the physical process by which a protein chain is translated to its native three-dimensional structure, typically a "folded" conformation by which the protein becomes biologically functional. Via an expeditious and reprodu ...

, extraction, and other chemical and physical processes.

Temporal resolution

TRMS is typically implemented to monitor processes that occur on second to millisecond time scale. However, there exist reports from studies in which sub-millisecond resolutions were achieved.

References

{{Reflist Analytical chemistry Biochemistry Laboratory techniques Mass spectrometry Scientific techniques