Fundamentals, strengths, and future directions for Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry

Abstract Devices for a range of uses from chemical purification to analytical instrumentation have exploited the constant relationship between a confining magnetic field and its captured charged particle. The path to mass spectrometry from particle physics was clearly evolutionary containing key and bit players along the development pathway. Modern Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometers retain notable characteristics of many stepwise advancements dating back to the simple copper cyclotron of Lawrence. Common themes among these milestones were flexibility and performance that seemingly transcended the sum of parts of a simple device that relied on a simple physical relationship. Recent advances to this simplistic concept have enabled dramatic increases in analytical figures-of-merit beyond what could be imagined even a decade ago. The emerging instrumentation has a core competence for separation of complex mixtures to include isotopologue masses of individual isotopic peaks in those very mixtures. With this routine capability comes new ideas for analysis of biomolecules and effectively supplements the advantage of selectivity for complex mixtures with specificity of their composition or heteroatom content.