Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique that measures the mass-to-charge ratio of charged particles. It is most generally used to find the composition of a physical sample by generating a mass spectrum representing the masses of sample components. The mass spectrum is measured by a mass spectrometer.
Main steps of measuring with a mass spectrometer
Mass spectrometers consist of three basic parts: an ion source, a mass analyzer, and a detector system. The stages within the mass spectrometer are:
Production of ions from the sample
Separation of ions with different masses
Detection of the number of ions of each mass produced
Collection of data to generate the mass spectrum
The technique is applicable in:
identifying unknown compounds by the mass of the compound molecules or their fragments
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 (mass spectrometry is not inherently quantitative)
studying the fundamentals of gas phase ion chemistry (the chemistry of ions and neutrals in vacuum)
determining other important physical, chemical, or even biological properties of compounds with a variety of other approaches
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