7. Ion detectors

In principle, this essential mass spectrometer device (see § 1.5.1 ), located at the end of the chain, after the MS analyzer, and therefore far from the separative part of the GC-MS or LC-MS coupling, should not be affected by the choice of separative method. In practice, certain features of the coupled separative method favor the use of special MS detectors.

The FT/MS detector is in a class of its own: it uses the effects of charge induction in a conductor, and has the special feature of not destroying the ions it detects