The resolution of a mass spectrometer depends on the efficiency of separating ions with different ion masses. The mass of an atom is approximated to the sum of the masses of protons and neutrons inside, considering the masses of protons and neutrons as equal. However, the masses of the proton (1.6726 × 10−24 g) and neutron (1.6749 × 10−24 g) are not truly equal. There is a minor error in the expression of atomic masses relative to the simplest atom of hydrogen. For...

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 low-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...

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 electrospray 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...

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:

The position of the absorption signal of a sample is reported relative to the position of the signal of tetramethylsilane (TMS), which is added as an internal reference while recording spectra. The difference between the absorption frequencies of the sample and TMS (in Hz) is divided by the spectrometer operating frequency (in MHz) to obtain a dimensionless quantity called the chemical shift. It is reported on the δ (delta) scale and expressed in parts per million.
For instance, the proton...

Most elements exist in nature as a mixture of isotopes. The isotopes differ in weight due to their respective number of neutrons. The molecular weight of a molecule is different depending on the specific isotope of its elements involved. As a result, the mass spectrum of the molecule exhibits peaks from the same fragment at multiple positions. The positions of these mass signals depend on the difference between the molecular mass. Furthermore, the intensity of these signals is dependent on the...