High Pressure Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-HRMS)

• Subject Area: Molecular Chemistry
• Term: Funded in 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 554125627

Electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is currently the most important analysing technique in mass spectrometry and essential for the characterisation of the majority of chemical and biomolecular compounds. In particular, this method can be applied for versatile analytical investigations in combination with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for qualitative and quantitative determinations. With the requested HPLC-ESI-HRMS instrument the ESI-MS based service provided by the core facility for mass spectrometry on the faculty of chemistry for research groups of the university should be continued on a high level. More than 75% of all analytical tasks in the MS core facility were performed applying ESI mass spectrometry. Presently, the ESI-HRMS service analytics is carried out using three elderly instruments, all of which are more than 14 years old and very susceptible to failure and repairs. Furthermore, all three instruments are operated with outdated software and were no longer technically supported by the manufacturers. Therefore, a replacement is highly required in this field. In order to continue the ESI-HRMS service at the core facility for mass spectrometry and to conduct the projects described in this proposal a mass spectrometer equipped with an electrospray ion source is to be purchased. Additionally, an ion source for atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation (APCI) is desirable. Furthermore, the determination of ion masses with very high precision is one of the main analytical tasks of the MS core facility. Therefore, a high-resolution mass analyser with a resolution of R > 40.000 and a very high mass accuracy is required. To obtain additional structural information, MS/MS investigations with high mass precision should be available. Furthermore, for the investigation for complex mixtures of compounds and quantitative determination of the analytes HPLC-ESI-HRMS measurements have to be performed. Therefore, the requested mass spectrometer should be connected online to a high-performance liquid chromatography system equipped with an UV/Vis detector and an autoinjector for an automatized sample introduction for HPLC-MS and direct ESI-HRMS measurements.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Hochleistungsflüssigkeitschromatographie-hochauflösendes Elektrospray Massenspektrometer
• Instrumentation Group: 1700 Massenspektrometer
• Applicant Institution: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
• Leader: Professor Dr. Lutz Ackermann