Elementary teaching experiment on the separation and identification of acidic plant hormones by LC-MS

Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is currently one of the important technical means for the detection of plant hormones such as abscisic acid(ABA)and indole-3-acetic acid. In order to consolidate students'grasp of the basic concepts and principles of LC-MS, improve their practical abilities and cultivate their experimental literacy, this paper provides 5 basic teaching experiments, ranging from easy to difficult, to address the main problems in current domestic LC-MS experimental teaching. These experiments can help students understand the basic process of LC-MS sample pretreatment, recognize the complexity of real samples and the bottleneck issues in the determination of trace plant hormones and learn preliminarily the method for the calculation of ABA content in real samples. After consecutive practice for three semesters in the Instrument Analysis course for the first year graduate students, these five teaching experiments have shown their teaching efficiency to cultivate the ability for students to use modern large-scale analytical instruments and to enhance their interest to learn instrument analysis technology.