New Research Confirms the Practical Applicability of Absorption-Mode in FT-ICR Mass Spectrometry

In a new study, scientists at the University of Warwick (Coventry, UK) present the results of the analysis of petroleum and protein samples to demonstrate the applicability of the absorption-mode in Fourier Transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) to routine experiments.

The new study follows two papers published last year by the same team, led by Professor Peter B. O’Conner. Those papers explained that the resolving power of FT-ICR-MS could be enhanced up to a factor of two by phasing the raw data accurately and plotting them in the pure absorption mode, which had been a long-standing problem for almost 40 years.

Through the analysis of crude oil and top-down protein spectra, the new study provides empirical evidence confirming that the absorption mode, in addition to improving the resolving power compared to the conventional magnitude mode, improves the signal-to-noise ratio of a spectrum by 1.4-fold and can improve the mass accuracy up to 2-fold, throughout the entire m/z range, without any additional cost in instrumentation.

The paper, “Absorption-Mode: The Next Generation of Fourier-Transform Mass Spectra,” was published on February 17 in the journal Analytical Chemistry.