Charge molecular concentration

If it were possible to identify or quantitatively determine any element or compound by simple measurement no matter what its concentration or the complexity of the matrix, separation techniques would be of no value to the analytical chemist. Most procedures fall short of this ideal because of interference with the required measurement by other constituents of the sample. Many techniques for separating and concentrating the species of interest have thus been devised. Such techniques are aimed at exploiting differences in physico-chemical properties between the various components of a mixture. Volatility, solubility, charge, molecular size, shape and polarity are the most useful in this respect. A change of phase, as occurs during distillation, or the formation of a new phase, as in precipitation, can provide a simple means of isolating a desired component. Usually, however, more complex separation procedures are required for multi-component samples. Most depend on the selective transfer of materials between two immiscible phases. The most widely used techniques and the phase systems associated with them are summarized in Table 4.1. 

Today, the two most common LC/MS interfaces are atmospheric pressure ionization interfaces, electrospray (ESI) and ion spray (ISI). Electrospray (Fig. 15.8) and its subtype, nanospray, are recommended for use with proteins and highly polar or ionized compounds. They are very soft ionization, concentration-dependent techniques that result in very little fragmentation and often produce multiply charged molecular ions. 

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