Pharmaceutical Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry

In time-of-flight (TOF) spectroscopy, ions are separated by their mass and are accelerated through an electric field. The velocity of the ions is used to detect the mass-to-charge ratio. Common applications of TOF spectroscopy within pharmaceutical development include metabolite profiling, surface analysis of organic and inorganic molecules, and biomarker discovery. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) TOF spectroscopy is efficient and highly sensitive for analyzing polymeric compounds such as protein and polysaccharides. Purchasing considerations for pharmaceutical TOF equipment include the molecular stability of the compounds to be tested, requirements for instrument size, possible instrument compatibility with quantification software, and the laboratory budget.