Patent Document ID: 9989505
Application ID: 14212480
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) system for identifying an unknown sample, the GC-MS system comprising: a gas chromatograph configured to determine experimental chromatographic data for a calibration sample and an unknown sample, the experimental chromatographic data comprising a first retention time associated with the calibration sample and a second retention time associated with the unknown sample; a toroidal ion trap mass spectrometer configured to determine experimental mass spectral data for the unknown sample, the experimental mass spectral data comprising a mass spectrum associated with the unknown sample; and a controller coupled with the gas chromatograph and the toroidal ion trap mass spectrometer for receiving the experimental chromatographic data and the experimental mass spectral data, determining a retention index for the unknown sample by comparing the first retention time associated with the calibration sample to a retention time recorded for the calibration sample in an electronic database comprising reference mass spectral data, the retention index for adjusting the second retention time associated with the unknown sample to filter the electronic database comprising reference mass spectral data to identify a subset of a plurality of database entries, at least one of the plurality of database entries comprising mass spectral data measured using a quadrupole mass spectrometer, and comparing the experimental mass spectral data to the filtered subset of the plurality of database entries to identify the unknown sample and providing an identification of the unknown sample via an input/output device, wherein the comparison comprises matching the experimental mass spectral data for the unknown sample to at least one database entry of the filtered subset of the plurality of database entries based upon detecting by the toroidal ion trap mass spectrometer at least one of (A) a first mass fragment having a mass equal to the molecular weight of the unknown sample plus a value of one, (B) a second mass fragment having a mass equal to two times the molecular weight of the unknown sample plus a value of one, or (C) a third mass fragment with a neutral molecule.