Chemistry and Biochemistry: Research Progress Vol. 11

Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) and LC–MS/MS are powerful analytical techniques widely used to analyse pharmaceutical, biological, food, and environmental samples. These techniques combine the separation capability of liquid chromatography with the identification and detection efficiency of mass spectrometry, providing high sensitivity, selectivity, and accurate compound characterisation. This chapter presents the principles, instrumentation, sample preparation methods, applications, and recent advancements of LC–MS and LC–MS/MS. Important analytical components, including ionisation methods, mass analysers, chromatographic systems, and data processing approaches, are discussed.

The chapter also highlights detailed case studies related to pharmaceutical analysis, metabolomics, and nutraceutical research. The Ivosidenib degradation study demonstrates the importance of LC–MS/MS in stability-indicating analysis and impurity profiling, whereas the rheumatoid arthritis metabolomics study explains biomarker discovery and metabolic pathway analysis. In addition, the almond bioactive peptide study describes peptide identification and nutraceutical applications using LC–MS/MS. Method validation, quality assurance, software applications, advantages, limitations, and recent developments, such as artificial intelligence and high-resolution mass spectrometry, are also included. Overall, LC–MS has become an important analytical platform in drug development, clinical diagnostics, food safety, and personalised medicine.