LC–MS/MS

Liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) combines chromatographic separation with sequential stages of mass analysis, in which a...

Liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) combines chromatographic separation with sequential stages of mass analysis, in which a selected precursor ion is isolated, deliberately fragmented through collision-induced dissociation, and the resulting product ions are analysed in a second mass-analysis stage, providing both separation of complex mixtures and highly specific, structurally informative detection of each individual component. LC-MS/MS is of central importance not only in structural characterisation but throughout pharmaceutical development more broadly, underlying pharmacokinetic bioanalysis (quantifying drug and metabolite concentration in biological matrices), impurity identification during analytical method development, and metabolite identification studies, owing to its combination of chromatographic resolving power with the exceptional sensitivity and specificity of tandem mass detection.