Pegasus Bt System (Gc-Tofms); Gc-Tofms - leco Pegasus BT GC/MS Instruction Manual

Pegasus BT System (GC-TOFMS)

The Pegasus BT system combines gas chromatography and mass
spectrometry, two very powerful analytical techniques.
Gas chromatography (GC) is an analytical technique for the separation
of volatile and semi-volatile components in chemical mixtures. Mass
spectrometry (MS) is a universal, specific, and very sensitive detection
technique for measuring the mass and quantity of ions. Mass
spectrometry can provide unambiguous information about the identity
and quantity of individual components in a mixture. Common to all
mass spectrometers are four main operational steps: sample
introduction, ionization in ion source, mass analysis, and ion detection.

GC-TOFMS

There are several types of mass spectrometers available for
conventional GC/MS analysis including quadrupole, ion trap, and
magnetic sector; however, the Pegasus BT uses a very non-traditional
type of mass spectrometer: a TOF (time-of-flight) mass spectrometer.
A TOF mass spectrometer (TOFMS) offers tremendous benefits for
analysis; most notable are a dramatically reduced analysis time and an
improved quality of the analytical results. This is because the TOFMS
acquires mass spectral information very fast and orders magnitude
faster than other types of mass spectrometers. Combining GC with
TOFMS (GC-TOFMS), the Pegasus BT can analyze the chemical
composition of volatile and semi-volatile mixtures, providing
quantitative and qualitative information on the individual components
of the mixture.
Using GC-TOFMS, the Pegasus BT is able to acquire full-range spectra
at high data rates (up to 50 spectra/sec) without any loss of data
quality. This data acquisition speed allows for faster separations than
conventional GC/MS; however, it also produces large amounts of data
in a short period of time. To handle the large amounts of data, the
ChromaTOF
to aid the user in the analysis of complex samples. In addition to data
processing, the ChromaTOF software also includes instrument control,
data acquisition, and data reporting. Refer to
Theory of Operation
® software has highly automated data processing routines
Pegasus ®
Figure
BT
5-1, following.
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