DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION, AND PERFORMANCE OF A HIGH-RESOLUTION GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY HIGH RESOLUTION MASS SPECTROMETRY REAL-TIME COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR THE ANALYSIS OF COMPLEX ORGANIC MIXTURES

Despite the large differences of chromatographic peak width and presently possible high resolution mass spectrometer scan cycle time under necessary operating conditions, a compromise of operating parameters was established in which the over-all chromatographic and mass spectrometric performances were minimally affected. A description is given of the optimization of such an analytical system and discusses the effects of the performance of each component on the performance of an integrated high resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry/real-time computer system. The application of this combination of analytical tools to the structure elucidation of components in samples of biomedical and geochemical origin is illustrated.