We adjust the ESI (electrospray ionization) parameters of a LC-MS/MS to increase the sensitivity of analytes during the method development and validation stage.

There are many parameters, such as: gas temperature, gas flow, sheath gas temperature, sheath gas flow, capillary voltage, nozzle voltage, and nebulizer pressure.

How to optimize the ESI parameters? #

two approaches:

1. one parameter at a time.
   It is empirical, but it overlooks the interactions between parameters. The design of experiments approach can overcome it. Furthermore, when the lack of standards is a critical limitation for method development, the statistical approach is especially useful. ¹

2. Design of experiments approach

Reference #