At present, two opposing trends can be observed in the instrumental analysis of small organic molecules (up to approx. 2,000 Da). On the one hand, ever faster analytical methods have to be developed in order to cope with the constantly growing volume of samples. Promising developments include ambient ionization methods (DESI, DART, etc.).

On the other hand, there is an increasing demand for increasingly comprehensive analysis platforms in order to analyse complex samples extremely sensitively and also to carry out comprehensive analyses (all possible components of a sample are determined qualitatively and quantitatively). Powerful analytical methods for such questions are - in addition to the classical and now very frequently used two-dimensional chromatographic methods (heart cut, on-line SPE etc.) - comprehensive two-dimensional gas and liquid chromatography (GC × GC and LC x LC), each in combination with a mass spectrometer. In recent years, ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has also been coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometers, whereby the additional separation dimension now also allows the analysis of isobaric compounds.

The more complex an analytical platform is, the more expensive and complicated the system is. In addition, the information gained from such analyses has to be paid for with a much larger amount of data (several gigabytes are possible for each analysis). This data volume is currently a serious problem for multidimensional high-end analysis systems.

We are working on the development of new multidimensional chromatographic analysis methods, such as continuous multiple heart-cut LC and GC (LC + LC and GC +GC, respectively), new modulators that allow a combination of incompatible eluents in both separation dimensions (e.g. at-column dilution modulation), the coupling of these multidimensional techniques with ion mobility mass spectrometry and the data evaluation.