the mass analyzer. While the mass analyzer applies the electric and magnetic fields to sort the ions by their masses, the detector measures and amplifies the ion current to calculate the abundances of each mass-resolved ion. In order to generate a mass spectrum that a human eye can easily recognize, the data system records, processes, stores, and displays data in a computer. The mass spectrum can be used to determine the mass of the analytes, their elemental and isotopic composition, or to elucidate the chemical structure of the sample. MS is an experiment that must take place in gas phase and under vacuum (1.33 * 10−2 to 1.33 * 10−6 pascal). Therefore, the development of devices facilitating the transition from samples at higher pressure and in condensed phase (solid or liquid) into a vacuum system has been essential to develop MS as a potent tool for identification and quantification of organic compounds like peptides. MS is now in very common use in analytical laboratories that study physical, chemical, or biological properties of a great variety of compounds. Among the many different kinds of mass analyzers, the ones that find application in LC-MS systems are the quadrupole, time-of-flight (TOF), ion traps, and hybrid quadrupole-TOF (QTOF) analyzers. Interfaces The interface between a liquid phase technique (HPLC) with a continuously flowing eluate, and a gas phase technique carried out in a vacuum was difficult for a long time. The advent of electrospray ionization changed this. Currently, the most common LC-MS interfaces are electrospray ionization (ESI), atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), and atmospheric pressure photo-ionization (APPI). These are newer MS ion sources that facilitate the transition from a high pressure environment (HPLC) to high vacuum conditions needed at the MS analyzer. Although these interfaces are described individually, they can also be commercially available as dual ESI/APCI, ESI/APPI, or APCI/APPI ion sources. Various deposition and drying techniques were used in the past (e.g., moving belts) but the most common of these was the off-line MALDI deposition. A new approach still under development called direct-EI LC-MS interface, couples a nano HPLC system and an electron ionization equipped mass spectrometer. Electrospray ionization (ESI) ESI interface for LC-MS systems was developed by Fenn and collaborators in 1988. This ion source/ interface can be used for the analysis of moderately polar and even very polar molecules (e.g., metabolites, xenobiotics, peptides, nucleotides, polysaccharides). The liquid eluate coming out of the