What is Mass Spectrometry?

Mass Spectrometry also know as Mass detection and MS Detection is a very powerful analytical technique used in a number of fields including:

• Identification of unknown compounds 
• Quantitation of known compounds 
• Determination of chemical structure

The basic function of an MS detector is to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions.

The unit of mass used is the Dalton (Da). One Dalton is equal to 1/12 of the mass of a single atom of carbon-12. This follows the accepted convention that an atom of carbon-12 has exactly 12 atomic mass units (amu). The instrument does not directly measure molecular mass but the mass-to-charge ratio of the ions. Electrical charge is a quantized property and so can exist only as an integer; that is, 1, 2, 3 and so on. The unit of charge used here (z) is that which is on an electron (negative) or a proton (positive). Therefore, the mass-to-charge ratio measured can be denoted by m/z. Most ions encountered in mass detection have just one charge. In this case, the mass-to-charge ratio is often spoken of as the "mass" of the ion.