Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS)

Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) is a method that combines the features of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify different substances within a test sample. GC-MS has been widely accepted as a "gold standard" for chemical identification of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds in mixtures, drug detection, environmental analysis, explosives investigation, and identification of unknown samples. Additionally, it can identify trace elements in materials that were previously thought go undetected by other technologies.

The GC-MS is composed of two major building blocks: the gas chromatograph and the mass spectrometer. The gas chromatograph utilizes a capillary column which depends on the column's dimensions (length, diameter, film thickness) as well as the phase properties (e.g. 5% phenyl polysiloxane). The difference in the chemical properties between different molecules in a mixture will separate the molecules as the sample travels the length of the column.  The molecules take different amounts of time (called the retention time) to come out of (elute from) the gas chromatograph, and this allows the mass spectrometer downstream to capture, ionize, accelerate, deflect, and detect the ionized molecules separately. The mass spectrometer does this by breaking each molecule into ionized fragments and detecting these fragments using their mass to charge ratio.

These two components, used together, allow a much finer degree of substance identification than either unit used separately. Combining the two processes reduces the possibility of error, as it is extremely unlikely that two different molecules will behave in the same way in both a gas chromatograph and a mass spectrometer. Therefore, when an identifying mass spectrum appears at a characteristic retention time in a GC-MS analysis, it typically lends to increased certainty that the analyte of interest is in the sample.