Chromatography and mass spectrometry facility

More Information

About the Chromatography and mass spectrometry facility

Chromatography and mass spectrometry are core technologies for the advancement of engineering, physical and life sciences. The School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering facility houses 11 different mass spectrometry instruments with a range of ionisation techniques, analyser types and chromatography inlets. We are recognised as pioneers of open access chromatography (liquid, gas and supercritical fluid) and mass spectrometry. 

The facility also hosts the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded South-West regional facility for 2-dimensional gas and liquid chromatography with high resolution mass spectrometry and ion mobility.  

The facility operates as an EPSRC small research facility (SRF) and can be included on grant applications. It also offers a contract service for external users upon discussion with the facility manager via nC2 Engineering Consultancy.

Technical specification

Core instrumentation (open access)

  • Waters H-Class UHPLC with TQD​ ESI/APCI MS: Waters ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) H-Class system, with tandem quadrupole (TQD) electrospray ionisation (ESI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation (APCI), mass spectrometer (MS)
  • Waters UPC2 (SFC) with TQD​ ESI/APCI MS: Waters ultra-performance convergence chromatography (UPC2), using supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), with tandem quadrupole (TQD) electrospray ionisation (ESI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation (APCI), mass spectrometer (MS)
  • Waters Radian ASAP: Waters Radian system that utilises atmospheric solids analysis probe (ASAP)
  • Shimadzu GC-MS QP2020 NX​ (EI/CI): Shimadzu Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) QP2020 NX system, that uses Electron Ionisation (EI) and Chemical Ionisation (CI)

High resolution MS

  • Dionex Ultimate 3000 UHPLC with Bruker maXis ESI MS: Dionex Ultimate 3000 system, ultra high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) with a Bruker maXis electrospray ionisation (ESI), mass spectrometer (MS)    
  • Waters H-Class UHPLC with Synapt G2Si Ion Mobility​ ESI MS: Waters H-Class system, ultra-high performance liquid Chromatography (UHPLC) with Synapt G2Si ion mobility electrospray ionisation (ESI), mass spectrometer (MS). Specifically for the analysis of oligonucleotides.

EPSRC South-West regional facility

  • LECO Pegasus® BT 4D GC-TOFMS​ (EI): LECO Pegasus® BT 4D system with gas chromatography-time of flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOFMS) using electron ionisation (EI)
  • LECO Pegasus® HRT+ GC-TOFMS (EI): LECO Pegasus® HRT+ system with gas chromatography-time of flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOFMS) using electron ionisation (EI)
  • Waters I-Class UHPLC with Select Series Cyclic Ion Mobility​ ESI MS: Waters I-Class system, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) with Select Series Cyclic Ion Mobility​ electrospray ionisation (ESI), mass spectrometer (MS)
  • Waters I-Class UHPLC (standalone): Waters I-Class system ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC), standalone

Contact us

Contact us

For more information, please email:

Mass Spectrometry Group

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Southampton, Highfield Campus, Southampton, SO17 1BJ 

nC² Engineering Consultancy

nC² Engineering Consultancy, Building 15a, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ