EC-MS Technical and Application Notes

Our EC-MS technical and application notes offer step-by-step guides for setting up your instrument and applying it to real electrochemical measurements.

EC‐MS Technical Notes

Tuning of the QMS

EC-MS Technical Note #5: step-by-step QMS peak and EM voltage tuning in PV MassSpec, with signal examples from a well-tuned system.
Zilien software status window showing valve control and gas settings for QMS tuning

Best practices using EC‐MS system for HER

EC-MS Technical Note #5: step-by-step QMS peak and EM voltage tuning in PV MassSpec, with signal examples from a well-tuned system.

Best practices for OER experiments

EC-MS Technical Note #5: step-by-step QMS peak and EM voltage tuning in PV MassSpec, with signal examples from a well-tuned system.

Air‐free transfer from a glovebox

Standardize your EC-MS setup with reproducible benchmark measurements on Pt-Poly and glassy carbon electrodes. Covers cyclic voltammetry and chronopotentiometry procedures for HER and OER, plus M2 signal decay analysis to gauge system cleanliness and tuning status.
Argon and helium gas pulse signals (M40 and M4) measured by EC-MS mass spectrometer

Potentiostat instability

EC-MS Technical Note #3: how capacitive EC-cells cause potentiostat instability in CV measurements, and how to fix it with a series resistor and post-measurement iR compensation.
Cyclic voltammogram artefacts from potentiostat instability, BioLogic SP-150, showing HER peak and reference-start ringing

Benchmark Measurements

EC-MS Technical Note #2: standardized cyclic voltammetry and chronopotentiometry benchmark measurements on Pt-Poly and GC electrodes, with expected M2 decay half-lives.
EC-MS time-domain signals (M2, M4, M18, M28, M32, M40, M44) during cyclic voltammetry on a Pt-Poly electrode

Gas Pulses

Learn how to send Ar and He gas pulses through the EC-MS gas exchange system with minimal switching time. Covers the step-by-step MFC and valve sequence, plus expected switching times — roughly 20 seconds from He to Ar, and 50 seconds from Ar to He.
Argon and helium gas pulse signals (M40 and M4) measured by EC-MS mass spectrometer

Avoiding MS‐Signal Fluctuations Caused by Bubbles

EC-MS Technical Note #5: step-by-step QMS peak and EM voltage tuning in PV MassSpec, with signal examples from a well-tuned system.

Non-aqueous chip performance

EC-MS Technical Note #4: how non-aqueous chips perform in IPA, THF, and KOH — CV and chronopotentiometry comparisons against standard chips.

Soft ionization

EC-MS Technical Note #5: step-by-step QMS peak and EM voltage tuning in PV MassSpec, with signal examples from a well-tuned system.

Setting up ion‐gauge interlock

EC-MS Technical Note #5: step-by-step QMS peak and EM voltage tuning in PV MassSpec, with signal examples from a well-tuned system.

Application Notes