Capability for Hyphenation:

Within a majority of chromatographic techniques, there is a detector in which quantifies the effluent coming out of the column. These detectors are not extremely sensitive. In addition they have a limited capability of identifying the unknowns. It is known in which a mass spectrometer is an extremely powerful universal detector. Thus, it is being interfaced along with a few of the chromatographic methods. An extremely significant instance in this regard is interfacing of a gas chromatograph along with a mass spectrometer (GC-MS).

Gas chromatography is an ideal separator, while mass spectrometry is excellent for identification. The goal of an interfacing arrangement is to operate both a gas chromatograph and a mass spectrometer without affecting the performance of either instrument. A problem is compatibility. The interface gives the link among the two instruments. On a same line, gas chromatography is coupled along with infrared spectrometry. The methods like high performance liquid chromatography and simple liquid chromatography are coupled within a mass spectrometer. The interfacing makes the methods as a powerful analytical tool. Therefore, in nutshell, a separation technique is conveniently interfaced along with an effectual detecting device like mass spectrometer or spectrophotometer; this could be an additional advantage of the technique. There have been serious efforts in this direction and even the simple methods such as thin layer chromatography has been interfaced along with a mass spectrometer.