Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique used to determine the molecular mass and molecular formula of a compound. The basic principle of mass ...

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 ...

The ionization of a molecule into a molecular ion inside the mass spectrometer causes instability in the molecule's structure due to the loss of an ...

This lesson details the instrumentation of a mass spectrometer—a physical instrument to perform mass spectrometry on analyte molecules and record ...

A mass spectrum is the graphical representation of the relative abundance of the charged fragments in an analyte plotted against their mass-to-charge ...

Given a known molecular ion mass, the unknown compound can be identified. The empirical formula is determined from the molecular ion mass and the isotope ...

Common mass analyzers include magnetic sector, double-focusing, quadrupole, time-of-flight, and ion trap analyzers. The capability of any mass analyzer ...

The quadrupole mass analyzer consists of four parallel rods, across which are applied a DC voltage and a radio-frequency AC voltage. Here, the field ...

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 ...

The analysis of complex mixtures requires the combination of separation methods and mass spectrometry in sequence, termed hyphenated methods. GC–MS ...

Tandem mass spectrometry, or MS/MS, combines two mass analyzers in sequence, connected by a collision or interaction cell. First, the samples are ionized ...

Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) is the combination of analytical techniques of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry in a ...

Inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry, or ICP–MS, uses an ICP source to prepare samples for atomic mass spectrometry. Solution-state ...

Despite the advantages offered by ICP–MS, accurate elemental analysis is affected by spectroscopic and non-spectroscopic interferences. ...