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Mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry weighs the molecule

المؤلف:  Jonathan Clayden , Nick Greeves , Stuart Warren

المصدر:  ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

الجزء والصفحة:  ص46-47

2025-04-20

964

It’s not easy to weigh a neutral molecule, and a mass spectrometer works by measuring the mass of a charged ion instead: the charge makes the molecule controllable by an electric fi eld. A mass spectrometer therefore has three basic components: • something to volatilize and ionize the molecule into a beam of charged particles • something to focus the beam so that particles of the same mass: charge ratio are separated from all others and • something to detect the particles. All spectrometers in common use operate in a high vacuum and use one of several methods to convert neutral molecules into cations, the most common being electron impact, chemical ionization, and electrospray.