The TSQ Vantage is a high performance triple stage quadrupole mass spectrometer. It includes a syringe pump, a divert/inject valve, an atmospheric pressure ionisation (API) source, and the Xcalibur™ data system. You can operate the mass spectrometer in either electrospray ionisation (ESI) mode or atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation (APCI) mode. Typically, polar compounds such as amines, peptides, and proteins are best analysed by ESI, and non-polar compounds such as steroids are best analysed by APCI.
With ESI, the TSQ Vantage can analyse compounds with molecular weights that are greater than 100,000 u because of multiple charging. ESI is especially useful for the mass analysis of polar compounds, which include biological polymers (for example, proteins, peptides, glycoproteins, and nucleotides); pharmaceuticals and their metabolites; and industrial polymers.
Like ESI, APCI is a soft ionization technique. APCI provides molecular weight information for compounds of low polarity that are somewhat volatile. APCI is typically used to analyse small molecules with molecular weights up to about 1000 u.
