massselective
Massselective, often written mass-selective, is an adjective used in analytical chemistry and spectroscopy to describe approaches, detectors, or analyses that discriminate or isolate signals by mass-to-charge ratio (m/z). In mass spectrometry, mass-selective detection means that the instrument responds primarily to ions within a defined m/z window, enabling selective monitoring of target species.
In practice this is achieved by mass analyzers such as quadrupole, triple quadrupole, time-of-flight, Orbitrap, and
Applications of massselective techniques span trace analysis of pollutants, pesticides, and drugs; proteomics and metabolomics; forensic
Limitations and considerations include the need for sufficient mass resolution to distinguish closely spaced ions and
Terminology notes: massselective detection is sometimes described more broadly as mass-selective detection or, in practice, through