CH09 - Principles of MS Flashcards
What is mass spetrometery?
The identification of molecules by determination of their molecular weight
What are the capabilities of mass spectrometery?
Qualitative and quantitative composition or organic and inorganic analyses in complex mixtures; structures of wide variety of complex species; isotopic ratios of atoms in samples; structure and composition of solid surfaces
How is a mass spectrum obtained?
- Molecule to gas phase
- Ionize
- Ions separated and detected
What are the unique aspects of mass spectrometry as opposed to other types of spectroscopy?
Does not look at spectrum of photon energies, but mass/charge ratio; must be done in high vacuum environment; discriminates among molecular and atomic isotopes
What units are used in Mass Spectrometry?
atomic mass unit (amu) also called daltons
List the components of a mass spectrometer
Inlet systems, ion sources, mass analyzers, detectors, signal processors and vacuum systems
All components except for inlet systems are held in vacuum.
inlet system
Introduces small amounts of sample
ion sources
Convert sample to ions
mass analyzers
disperses ions by m/x ratio; analogous to monochromatic in photon spectroscopies
detectors
Converts ion beam into electrical signal
vacuum systems
Must maintain high vacuum 10e-4 to 10e-8 torr
What are the 3 ways to introduce samples into the ion source?
Gas expansion (molecular leak), direct insertion\exposure probe, chromatographic inlet
What are the methods used to introduce gases in MS (name 2)?
- batch inlet; introduce through reservoir then leak the gas through a small aperture (gas expansion)
- chromatographic inlet (GC-MS)
What are the methods used to introduce solids in MS? (name 2)
- Direct insertion probe; insertion probe with sample held on end
- Direct exposure probe; sample is dissolved to a solution, a drop of the solution is placed on a glass tip and the liquids are evaporated.
What are the methods used to introduce liquids in MS? (name 2)
- Gas Expansion (molecular leak inlet) for volatile liquids
- Direct insertion probe
- chromatographic inlet (GC-MS)
Electrospray Ionization?
- When a strong electric field is applied to a liquid passing through a metal capillary, the liquid becomes dispersed into a fine spray of positively or negatively charged droplets - an electrospray.
- The highly charged droplets shrink as the solvent evaporates until the droplets undergo a series of “explosions” due to increasing coulombic repulsion of the electrons as
their droplet surface density increases. - When the droplets become small enough, the analyte ions desorb from the droplets and enter the mass analyzer.
Faraday cups advantages
- Absolute detector - reliable, can be used to calibrate other detectors
- Budget friendly
electron multipliers
most common detector for MS; like a PMT without photocathode; each successive dynode held at higher voltage; can detect less than 10e-15 A currents
Array Detectors
like multichannel array detectors; arrays of metallic electrodes are used, each acting as an individual electron multiplier detector causing an electron cascade; optical coupling by phosphorescent screen converting electrons to light
Faraday cups disadvantages
- high impedence amplifier limits speed at which it can be scanned (long response)
- The Faraday cup detector has no gain associated with it (unlike dynode-based detectors) => limited
sensitivity of the measurement.
Faraday cups principle
A metal or carbon cup that serves to capture
ions and store the charge. The resulting current of a few microamperes is measured and amplified.
electron multipliers disadvantages
The number of secondary electrons released
depends on the type of incident primary particle, its angle and energy (ions with low kinetic energy emit a weak signal).
What are the two key functions of ionization sources?
produce and remove ions
Gas phase vs desorption
gas phase: sample volatilized then ionized
desorption: sample probe ionizes sample directly into gaseous ionic state