Basic Principle of TOF Instruments

Thereby, the former potential energy of a charged particle in an electric field is converted into kinetic energy i.e., into translational motion 

Assuming the ion was at rest before, which is correct in a first approximation, the velocity attained is obtained by rearranging Eq. 4.2 into 

Example From Eq. 4.3 we obtain the velocity of the [60]fullerene molecular ion, Cgo , after acceleration by 19.5 kV as 

Note Equation 4.3 describes the velocity of any ion after acceleration in an electric field, and therefore it is valid not only for TOE-MS, but for any part of a mass spectrometer handling beams of ions. 

It does not take a great leap to the idea of measuring the time for an ion of unknown m/z to travel a distance 5 after having been accelerated by a voltage 77. The relationship between velocity and time t needed to travel the distance 5 is 

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