GC-MS operates in two stages. First, the gas chromatography component separates the chemical mixture into individual compounds. The sample is vaporized and carried by an inert gas through a column filled with a stationary phase. Different compounds travel at different speeds, allowing them to be separated.
Once separated, the compounds enter the mass spectrometer, where they are ionized, fragmented, and detected based on their mass-to-charge ratio. The resulting data creates a unique spectrum for each compound, which can be compared to a database for identification.
