US Patent 10473620 Analysis of isomers in TIMS-Q-q-TOF mass spectrometers

The invention relates to methods for the detailed analysis of ion mixtures from complex mixtures of organic substances in time-of-flight mass spectrometers which are equipped with a trapped ion mobility spectrometer, a quadrupole mass selector and a fragmentation cell. The invention proposes to analyze ion signals of a first mass mobility map, fragment ion spectra and the identifications of the associated substances as to whether ion mixtures not resolved according to mass and mobility, for example from isomers or isobars, are possibly present, and to subsequently measure the ion signals of interest with method parameters which allow the ion species to be measured separately by means of high mobility resolution.