Transformative effects of higher magnetic field in Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry

The relationship of magnetic field strength and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry performance was tested using three instruments with the same design but different fields of 4.7, 7, and 9.4 tesla. We found that the theoretically predicted “transformative” effects of magnetic field are indeed observed experimentally. The most striking effects were that mass accuracy demonstrated ∼second to third order improvement with the magnetic field, depending upon the charge state of the analyte, and that peak splitting, which prohibited automated data analysis at 4.7 T, was not observed at 9.4 T.