Mass Spectrometry

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Mass spectrometry is uses as an analytical technique which identifies the chemical composition of a compound or sample based on the mass-to-charge ratio of charged particles. Mass spectrometry utilizes chemical fragmentation of a sample into charged particles (ions) and measurements of two properties, charge and mass, of the resulting particles.  The ratio is deduced by passing the particles through electric and magnetic fields in a mass spectrometer.

A mass spectrometer has three essential modules: an ion source, which transforms the molecules in a sample into ionized fragments; a mass analyzer, which sorts the ions by their masses by applying electric and magnetic fields; and a detector, which measures the value of some indicator quantity and thus provides data for calculating the abundances each ion fragment present.  Mass spectrometry gives both qualitative and quantitative observations, such as identifying unknown compounds, determining the isotopic composition of elements in a compound, determining the structure of a compound by observing its fragmentation, quantifying the amount of a compound in a sample using carefully designed methods (e.g., by comparison with known quantities of heavy isotopes), studying the fundamentals of gas phase ion chemistry (the chemistry of ions and neutrals in vacuum), and determining other physical, chemical, or biological properties of compounds.

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