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Methods · 5 min

HPLC and LC-MS: two different questions

Atjaunināts 2026-07-27Šis raksts tiek rādīts angļu valodā - tulkojums tiek gatavots.

A test report usually lists two analytical methods together - HPLC and LC-MS - because they answer different questions. Reading a certificate is easier once you know which answer comes from which method.

HPLC - how much

High-performance liquid chromatography separates the components of a sample as they pass through a column, and a detector (commonly UV) measures each as a peak. The area of the main peak versus the rest gives the purity percentage. HPLC is a quantity-and-separation question: how much of the main component is present, and how much is something else.

LC-MS - what it is

Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry adds a mass detector. After separation, the mass spectrometer measures the mass of the molecule, which is used to confirm identity - whether the compound is actually the intended one. HPLC can show a clean, single peak that is still the wrong molecule; LC-MS is what closes that gap.

Why both

Purity without identity is a number with no anchor; identity without purity says nothing about how much unwanted material is present. Together, HPLC and LC-MS state both what the compound is and how much of it the batch contains - which is why a serious test report reports both.