Mass calibration standards

Reference inlet. This is a small heated reservoir from which reference materials can be leaked into the ion source for use as mass calibration standards or to assist in resolution and focusing adjustments. 

To ensure that S eas is determined accurately, we calibrate the equipment or instrument used to obtain the signal. Balances are calibrated using standard weights. When necessary, we can also correct for the buoyancy of air. Volumetric glassware can be calibrated by measuring the mass of water contained or delivered and using the density of water to calculate the true volume. Most instruments have calibration standards suggested by the manufacturer. 

Normally a calibration curve—molar mass against the total retention volume—exists for every GPC column or column combination. As a measure of the separation efficiency of a given column (set) the difference in the retention of two molar masses can be determined from this calibration curve. The same eluent and the same type of calibration standards have to be used for the comparison of different columns or sets. However, this volume difference is not in itself sufficient. In a first approximation the cross section area does not contribute to the separation. Dividing the retention difference by the cross section area normalizes the retention volume for different diameters of columns. The ISO standard method (3) contains such an equation... 

In many cases when methods involve internal or external standards, the solutions used to construct the calibration graph are made up in pure solvents and the signal intensities obtained will not reflect any interaction of the analyte and internal standard with the matrix found in unknown samples or the effect that the matrix may have on the performance of the mass spectrometer. One way of overcoming this is to make up the calibration standards in solutions thought to reflect the matrix in which the samples are found. The major limitation of this is that the composition of the matrix may well vary widely and there can be no guarantee that the matrix effects found in the sample to be determined are identical to those in the calibration standards. 

Residues of isoxaflutole, RPA 202248 and RPA 203328 are extracted from surface water or groundwater on to an RP-102 resin solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridge, then eluted with an acetonitrile-methanol solvent mixture. Residues are determined by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) on a Cg column. Quantitation of results is based on a comparison of the ratio of analyte response to isotopically labeled internal standard response versus analyte response to internal standard response for calibration standards. 

Resolution does not affect the accuracy of the individual accurate mass measurements when no separation problem exists. When performing accurate mass measurements on a given component in a mixture, it may be necessary to raise the resolution of the mass spectrometer wherever possible. Atomic composition mass spectrometry (AC-MS) is a powerful technique for chemical structure identification or confirmation, which requires double-focusing magnetic, Fourier-transform ion-cyclotron resonance (FTICR) or else ToF-MS spectrometers, and use of a suitable reference material. The most common reference materials for accurate mass measurements are perfluorokerosene (PFK), perfluorotetrabutylamine (PFTBA) and decafluorotriph-enylphosphine (DFTPP). One of the difficulties of high-mass MS is the lack of suitable calibration standards. Reference inlets to the ion source facilitate exact mass measurement. When appropriately calibrated, ToF mass... 

In direct insertion techniques, reproducibility is the main obstacle in developing a reliable analytical technique. One of the many variables to take into account is sample shape. A compact sample with minimal surface area is ideal [64]. Direct mass-spectrometric characterisation in the direct insertion probe is not very quantitative, and, even under optimised conditions, mass discrimination in the analysis of polydisperse polymers and specific oligomer discrimination may occur. For nonvolatile additives that do not evaporate up to 350 °C, direct quantitative analysis by thermal desorption is not possible (e.g. Hostanox 03, MW 794). Good quantitation is also prevented by contamination of the ion source by pyrolysis products of the polymeric matrix. For polymer-based calibration standards, the homogeneity of the samples is of great importance. Hyphenated techniques such as LC-ESI-ToFMS and LC-MALDI-ToFMS have been developed for polymer analyses in which the reliable quantitative features of LC are combined with the identification power and structure analysis of MS. 

A compound or element added to all calibration standards and samples in a constant known amount. Sometimes a major constituent of the samples to be analysed can be used for this purpose. Instead of preparing a conventional calibration curve of instrument response as a function of analyte mass, volume or concentration, a response ratio is computed for each calibration standard and sample, i.e. the instrument response for the analyte is divided by the corresponding response for the fixed amount of added internal standard. Ideally, the latter will be the same for each pair of measurements but variations in experimental conditions may alter the responses of both analyte and internal standard. However, their ratio should be unaffected and should therefore be a more reliable function of... 

Watmough, S.A., Hutchinson, T. C., and Evans, R. D. (1998). Development of solid calibration standards for trace elemental analyses of tree rings by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Environmental Science and Technology 32 2185-2190. 

If high-resolution measurements are performed in order to assign elemental compositions, internal mass calibration is almost always required. The calibration compound can be introduced from a second inlet system or be mixed with the analyte before the analysis. Mixing calibration compounds with the analyte requires some operational skills in order not to suppress the analyte by the reference or vice versa. Therefore, a separate inlet to introduce the calibration compound is advantageous. This can be achieved by introducing volatile standards such as PFK from a reference inlet system in electron ionization, by use of a dual-target probe in fast atom bombardment, or by use of a second sprayer in electrospray ionization. 

Once the mass spectmm of a calibration standard is known and the elemental composition of the ions that are to be included in the mass reference list are established by an independent measurement, a reference list may be compiled. For this purpose, the listed reference masses should be calculated using six decimal places. Otherwise, there is a risk of erroneous reference values, especially when masses of ion series are calculated by multiplication of a subunit. Such a tasks are well suited for spreadsheet applications on a personal computer. 

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