Besides separation, one of the possible applications of ion mobility spectrometry is structural assignment based on the collision cross section (CCS). This physical quantity is on the one hand derived from the ion mobility measurement, and on the other hand, it can be calculated on a structural model. The structural assignment is based on the matching between experimental and calculated CCS values. The presentation reviews some fundamental aspects of ion mobility spectrometry and collision cross sections, with a special focus on the metrology aspects of ion mobility mass spectrometry measurements.

This tutorial on ion mobility spectrometry was first created for the COST BM1403 training school on structural proteomics, September 18-21, 2018. It was updated on July 4th, 2019.