Quantitative Applications of Mass Spectrometry:

The quantification of the analyte is besides its identification, is one of the main aims of an analytical chemist. A Mass spectrometry has a significant role to play in achieving this objective of the analytical chemist. It could be effectively used in the quantitative determination of the analyte alone or in a complex system with a large number of components, especially in the areas of petroleum, pharmaceuticals  and environment The hyphenated techniques wherein a mass spectrometer is coupled with a liquid or a gas chromatograph or an electrophoretic column are employed for this purpose. The analyte from the chromatographic or electrophoretic column is passed continuously through the spectrometer which analyses the aliquots reaching it as a function of time. The spectrometer may be instructed to monitor any one or a number of characteristic peaks of the analytes. A area under the peaks is a measure of their concentration.

In a yet another strategy the spectrum of the mixture is run and the different analytes in it are monitored in terms of their unique fragment peaks. The heights of the unique peaks of different analytes in the mixture are indicative of their concentrations. A calibration curve of the peak height as a function of the analyte concentration is quite useful in these circumstances.