Mass Spectrometry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mass Spectrometry - Essay Example The first step involves production of ions of the compound by electron ionization. Each product ion is generated from the molecular ion. The result results are then displayed in a plot of a graph of ion abundance against mass to charge proportion. The ions give information concerning the structure and nature of their original molecule. However, the spectrum of a molecular ion appears at a greater value, which gives the total molecular mass of the substance. Mass spectrometry instrument consist of various components, the detector system that detects ions and record relative abundance of every compound, ion source, which produce gaseous ions and analyser, which resolve ions into their respective mass components. In addition, a computer is also required to monitor and control the instrument, get and manipulate data then use it to compare spectra. With the help of these components, a mass spectrometer can perform various processes. This includes, separating ions in accordance to the ratio of their mass to charge, producing ions from the compound, which is done in the ionization source, fragmenting and analysing ions, processing signals from detector, which are then transmitted to computer system and control the instrument via feedback and detect the ions from the last analyser and measure their abundance. This can be done using the detector, which converts the ions to electrical signals. Mass spectrometry has several advantages compared to the other analytical techniques used. It is highly accurate, can be coupled with liquid chromatography to separate samples further, and has a large mass range, fast, auto runs with sampler or direct injection. On the other hand, it has some drawbacks like it is complicated spectra, salts drown signal which takes more time to filter from the machine, a high intensity peak can eclipse smaller intensity peaks, fine tuning work. In conclusion, although Mass