Patent ID: 9500624
Filing Date: 2016-11-22
CPC Classification: G01N,H01J

Claim Text:
1. A method of operating a system comprising a chromatograph operable to separate sample solutions into fractions, an ion source operable to ionize components of the fractions and a mass spectrometer operable to analyze and detect the ions, the method comprising: (a) providing an abundance threshold value and a list comprising respective entries for each of two or more precursor ion species of interest comprising respective precursor-ion m/z ratios; (b) transmitting a first portion of a sample fraction comprising a plurality of sample-fraction ion species through an ion mobility spectrometer to the mass spectrometer, wherein the ion mobility spectrometer is operated in a non-dispersive mode; (c) detecting a respective ion abundance at each of a plurality of sample-fraction m/z ratios using the mass spectrometer; and (d) upon detection of an above-threshold ion abundance at a sample-fraction m/z-ratio corresponding to a first one of the precursor ion species of interest: