An Open-Access Mass Spectrometry Facility

Field Wide variety of applications, e.g., synthetic chemistry. 

Technique Open-access instrumentation, electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESl-MS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDl). 

Reference J. Greaves, Operation of an academic open-access mass spectrometry facility with particular reference to the analysis of synthetic compounds, J. Mass Spectrom. 37 777-785 (2002). 

Mass spectrometers are often used to produce routine data that are still essential components of research programs. Because such data are often integral components of a sequence of experiments, the results are usually required immediately, and delays can become rate limiting. 

Mass spectrometers were often the last portion of an analytical sequence that included thin-layer chromatography (TLC), infrared (IR), UV, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). In synthetic chanistry MS was frequently used only to obtain accurate mass values because journals required such data. Open access allows mass spectrometry to be moved to the front of the analytical chain with rapid determination of the molecular masses of analytes. 

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