Higher molecular weight biomolecules are nonvolatile compounds that may decompose before ionizing or vaporizing during mass analysis with conventional electron impact ionization methods. Accordingly, electrospray ionization (ESI) is the favored method for vaporizing and ionizing biomolecules as it circumvents rapid fragmentation and enables the recording of mass signals for the entire biomolecule.
ESI utilizes electrical energy to transfer ions from the liquid phase of the sample into the...

The molecular ion peak of a molecule in the mass spectrum provides vital information for molecular identification. However, conventional electron impact ionization can lead to the rapid dissociation of some molecular ions before they reach the detector. A milder ionization method is required to increase the lifetime of such ionized analyte molecules. Chemical ionization (CI) is a gas-phase protonation reaction useful for mass-analyzing analyte molecules that are easily protonated to yield the...

This lesson details the instrumentation of a mass spectrometer—a physical instrument to perform mass spectrometry on analyte molecules and record the characteristic mass spectra. This is achieved via three chief functions:

Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique used to determine the molecular mass and molecular formula of a compound. The basic principle of mass spectrometry is to generate ions from the analyte molecule and measure these ion abundances against their molecular mass. One common type of ionization, known as electron ionization or EI, bombards the analyte molecules in the gas phase with high-energy electron beams. The electron beams displace an electron from the molecule and leave behind a...

An unknown compound can be established by identifying the molecular ion peak in the mass spectrum. The molecular ion peak is often weak or absent due to the predominance of fragmentation in high-energy electron beams. In such cases, a soft-energy electron beam can be used to scan the spectrum to enhance the intensity of the molecular ion peak. Additionally, chemical ionization, field ionization, and desorption ionization spectra are used to obtain a relatively intense molecular ion peak.To...

In inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP–MS), an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) torch is used as an atomizer and ionizer. Solid samples are dissolved and volatilized before being introduced into the high-temperature argon plasma, while solution samples are nebulized and passed through the high-temperature argon plasma. Plasma dissociates the analytes and ionizes their component atoms to form a mixture of positive ions and molecular species. The positive ions are then passed on to...