Copy An Experiment Into A Period; Copy An Experiment Within A Period; Scan Techniques; Quadrupole-Mode Scan Types - AB Sciex 4500 Series System User's Manual

Basic Acquisition Methods

Copy an Experiment into a Period

Prerequisite: Multi-period method
• In the Acquisition method pane, press CTRL, and then drag the experiment to the
period.
The experiment is copied below the last experiment in the period.

Copy an Experiment within a Period

Use this procedure to add the same or similar experiments to a period if most or all of the
parameters are the same.
• Right-click the experiment and then click Copy this experiment.

Scan Techniques

MS: In MS scans, also referred to as single MS scans, ions are separated according to their
mass-to-charge ratio. A single MS scan may be used to determine the molecular weight of a
compound. Single MS scans can also be referred to as survey scans. MS scans do not provide
any information as to the chemical make-up of the ions other than the mass-to-charge ratio.
Perform MS/MS or MS/MS/MS scan types to obtain more information about the ions.
MS/MS: MS/MS scans are used to help identify or confirm a molecular species. In MS/MS, a
precursor ion can be fragmented in one of two locations.
• For triple quadrupole instruments, fragmentation occurs in the collision cell.
• For LIT instruments, fragmentation can occur in the collision cell or the linear ion
trap.
If enough energy is used, the precursor ion fragments to produce characteristic product ions.
MS/MS/MS: The LIT instrument MS/MS/MS scans go one step further than MS/MS scans. A
fragment that is produced in the collision cell is fragmented further in the trap to give more
structural information about the molecular ion.

Quadrupole-Mode Scan Types

Triple quadrupole instruments have high-sensitivity MRM (Multiple Reaction Monitoring)
capabilities required for quantitation experiments. In addition, they have highly specific scan
types such as precursor ion and neutral loss scans that allow a more advanced search to be
performed on the components of the samples.
Q1 MS (Q1): A full scan using the first quadrupole (Q1). The ion intensity is returned for every
mass in the scan range.
Q1 Multiple Ions (Q1 MI): A zero width scan type using the first quadrupole (Q1). The ion
intensity is returned for the specified masses only.
Q3 MS (Q3): A full scan using the third quadrupole (Q3). The ion intensity is returned for every
mass in the scan range.
Q3 Multiple Ions (Q3 MI): A zero width scan type using the third quadrupole (Q3). The ion
intensity is returned for the specified masses only.
4500 Series of Instruments
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System User Guide
Document Number: D5030863 A