Megan McGuigan

Screening for pesticide content is a common analysis that is done in laboratories where many samples need to be analyzed over a short period of time. The desire for a high-speed analysis is due to the need for a fast result from a potentially large volume of samples. A fast analysis is typically achieved through the use of high carrier gas flow rates in combination with temperature programming. A fast detector is needed in order to fully characterize the narrow chromatographic peaks generated from these experiments. TOFMS is ideal for detecting these narrow peaks because of its fast acquisition rate over a full mass range at all times during the experiment. In addition, TOFMS provides for non-skewed mass spectra making peak deconvolution possible.