Mass Spectrometry

Hi!

This post is about Mass Spectrometry.

Introduction: Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that produces spectra (singular spectrum) of the masses of the molecules comprising a sample of material. The spectra are used to determine the elemental composition of a sample, the masses of particles and of molecules, and to elucidate the chemical structures of molecules, such as peptides and other chemical compounds. Mass spectrometry works by ionizing chemical compounds to generate charged molecules or molecule fragments and measuring their mass-to-charge ratios. 

Reference: Sparkman, O. David (2000). Mass spectrometry desk reference. Pittsburgh: Global View Pub. ISBN 0-9660813-2-3.

Procedure: In a typical MS procedure, a sample, which may be solid, liquid, or gas, is ionized. The ions are separated according to their mass-to-charge ratio. The ions are detected by a mechanism capable of detecting charged particles. Signal processing results are displayed as spectra of the relative abundance of ions as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. The atoms or molecules can be identified by correlating known masses to the identified masses or through a characteristic fragmentation pattern.
Reference: Chhabil Dass (11 May 2007). Fundamentals of Contemporary Mass Spectrometry. John Wiley & Sons. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-470-11848-1.

Here is a YouTube video to a very simple and interesting animation explaining Mass Spectrometry-

Fig. Below: Mass spectrum of a peptide showing the isotopic distribution-



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