Mass spectrometer identification

Ether extracts were analyzed via GC/MS. A Varian Model 3700 gas chromatograph was used with a 0.32 mm id x 15 m fused silica column coated with a 1 micron film of DB-5. The following oven conditions were employed 5 min at 60 C then 5 C/min to 230 C and a final hold of 10 min. The column effluent was passed through an open split interface into a Finnigan model 705 Ion Trap Mass spectrometer. Identifications were achieved by comparison of the generated spectra to those of the NBS Library Compilation or to published spectra. Relative concentrations of the products were determined using the Ion Trap quantitation program. 

Mass spectrometry is particularly useful for the identification of specific organic pollutants. It depends upon the production of ions by an electrical discharge or chemical process, followed by separation based on the charge-to-mass ratio and measurement of the ions produced. The output of a mass spectrometer is a mass spectrum, such as the one shown in Figure 25.12. A mass spectrum is characteristic of a compound and serves to identify it. Computerized data banks for mass spectra have been established and are stored in computers interfaced with mass spectrometers. Identification of a mass spectrum depends upon the purity of the compound from which the spectrum is taken. Prior separation by gas... 

Extraction Tests Loss of plasticizer and other extractables can be measured using film or sheet samples in media such as mineral oil, namral oils, alcohol, or soap solution per ASTM D1239, typically run for 24 hours at room temperamre. In the case of solvents, such as hexane, the solution may be concentrated for chromatographic analysis with infrared or mass spectrometer identification. The nature of the extractable fraction is as important to the formulator as the quantity, particularly in compound reconstruction (discussed in the following). Extraction of water-soluble species, such as dispersants in latex coatings, is carried out for longer time periods. 

The chromatogram can finally be used as the series of bands or zones of components or the components can be eluted successively and then detected by various means (e.g. thermal conductivity, flame ionization, electron capture detectors, or the bands can be examined chemically). If the detection is non-destructive, preparative scale chromatography can separate measurable and useful quantities of components. The final detection stage can be coupled to a mass spectrometer (GCMS) and to a computer for final identification. 

Gas chromatography is not an identification method the components must be identified after their separation by capillary column. This is done by coupling to the column a mass spectrometer by which the components can be identified with the aid of spectra libraries. However tbe analysis takes a long time (a gasoline contains aboutTwo hundred components) so it is not practical to repeat it regularly. Furthermore, analysts have developed te hpiques for identifying... 

Although GGMS is the most widely used ana lytical method that combines a chromatographic sep aration with the identification power of mass spectrometry it is not the only one Chemists have coupled mass spectrometers to most of the mstru ments that are used to separate mixtures Perhaps the ultimate is mass spectrometry/mass spectrome try (MS/MS) m which one mass spectrometer gener ates and separates the molecular ions of the components of a mixture and a second mass spec trometer examines their fragmentation patterns ... 

Molecular Identification. In the identification of a compound, the most important information is the molecular weight. The mass spectrometer is able to provide this information, often to four decimal places. One assumes that no ions heavier than the molecular ion form when using electron-impact ionization. The chemical ionization spectrum will often show a cluster around the nominal molecular weight. 

Visual and computer-assisted identification of the structure of a sample analyzed by a mass spectrometer. 

A second use of arrays arises in the detection of trace components of material introduced into a mass spectrometer. For such very small quantities, it may well be that, by the time a scan has been carried out by a mass spectrometer with a point ion collector, the tiny amount of substance may have disappeared before the scan has been completed. An array collector overcomes this problem. Often, the problem of detecting trace amounts of a substance using a point ion collector is overcome by measuring not the whole mass spectrum but only one characteristic m/z value (single ion monitoring or single ion detection). However, unlike array detection, this single-ion detection method does not provide the whole spectrum, and an identification based on only one m/z value may well be open to misinterpretation and error. 

Multidimensional or hyphenated instmments employ two or more analytical instmmental techniques, either sequentially, or in parallel. Hence, one can have multidimensional separations, eg, hplc/gc, identifications, ms/ms, or separations/identifications, such as gc/ms (see CHROMATOGRAPHY Mass spectrometry). The purpose of interfacing two or more analytical instmments is to increase the analytical information while reducing data acquisition time. For example, in tandem-mass spectrometry (ms/ms) (17,18), the first mass spectrometer appHes soft ionization to separate the mixture of choice into molecular ions the second mass spectrometer obtains the mass spectmm of each ion. 

In addition, the appHcation of the mass spectrometer (ms) as a detector for gas—Hquid chromatography has made the positive identification of peaks possible. High performance Hquid chromatography (hplc), which involves various detectors, can be used to measure hydrophilic and hydrophobic organic compounds in water. 

The mass spectrometer (ms) is a common adjunct to a chromatographic system (see Mass spectrometry). The combination of a gas chromatograph for component separation and a mass spectrometer (gc/ms) for detection and identification of the separated components is a powerful tool, particularly when the data are collected usiag an on-line data-handling system. QuaUtative information inherent ia the separation can be coupled with the identification of stmcture and relatively straightforward quantification of a mixture s components. 

When the gas chromatograph is attached to a mass spectrometer, a very powerful analytical tool (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, GC-MS) is produced. Vapour gas chromatography allows the analyses of mixtures but does not allow the definitive identification of unknown substances whereas mass spectrometry is good for the identification of a single compound but is less than ideal for the identification of mixtures of... 

HPLC systems coupled to mass spectrometers (LC-MS) are extremely important methods for the separation and identification of substances. If not for the costs involved in LC-MS, these systems would be more commonly found in research laboratories. 

Spark Source Mass Spectrometry (SSMS) is a method of trace level analysis—less than 1 part per million atomic (ppma)—in which a solid material, in the form of two conducting electrodes, is vaporized and ionized by a high-voltage radio frequency spark in vacuum. The ions produced from the sample electrodes are accelerated into a mass spectrometer, separated according to their mass-to-charge ratio, and collected for qualitative identification and quantitative analysis. 

Static SIMS entails the bombardment of a sample surface with an energetic beam of particles, resulting in the emission of surface atoms and clusters. These ejected species subsequendy become either positively or negatively charged and are referred to as secondary ions. The secondary ions are the actual analytical signal in SIMS. A mass spectrometer is used to separate the secondary ions with respect to their charge-to-mass ratios. The atomic ions give an elemental identification (see... 

Detection limits in ICPMS depend on several factors. Dilution of the sample has a lai e effect. The amount of sample that may be in solution is governed by suppression effects and tolerable levels of dissolved solids. The response curve of the mass spectrometer has a large effect. A typical response curve for an ICPMS instrument shows much greater sensitivity for elements in the middle of the mass range (around 120 amu). Isotopic distribution is an important factor. Elements with more abundant isotopes at useful masses for analysis show lower detection limits. Other factors that affect detection limits include interference (i.e., ambiguity in identification that arises because an elemental isotope has the same mass as a compound molecules that may be present in the system) and ionization potentials. Elements that are not efficiently ionized, such as arsenic, suffer from poorer detection limits. 

Analytical information taken from a chromatogram has almost exclusively involved either retention data (retention times, capacity factors, etc.) for peak identification or peak heights and peak areas for quantitative assessment. The width of the peak has been rarely used for analytical purposes, except occasionally to obtain approximate values for peak areas. Nevertheless, as seen from the Rate Theory, the peak width is inversely proportional to the solute diffusivity which, in turn, is a function of the solute molecular weight. It follows that for high molecular weight materials, particularly those that cannot be volatalized in the ionization source of a mass spectrometer, peak width measurement offers an approximate source of molecular weight data for very intractable solutes. 

These authors also analysed marine diesel fuel with GC X GC, connected to a quadrupole mass spectrometer for identification purposes, although the scan speed of the spectrometer was not quite suited for the fast second-dimension peaks... 

Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is the synergistic combination of two powerful analytic techniques. The gas chromatograph separates the components of a mixture in time, and the mass spectrometer provides information that aids in the structural identification of each component. The gas chromatograph, the mass spectrometer, and the interface linking these two instruments are described in this chapter. 

It is crucial in quantitative GC to obtain a good separation of the components of interest. Although this is not critical when a mass spectrometer is used as the detector (because ions for identification can be mass selected), it is nevertheless good practice. If the GC effluent is split between the mass spectrometer and FID detector, either detector can be used for quantitation. Because the response for any individual compound will differ, it is necessary to obtain relative response factors for those compounds for which quantitation is needed. Care should be taken to prevent contamination of the sample with the reference standards. This is a major source of error in trace quantitative analysis. To prevent such contamination, a method blank should be run, following all steps in the method of preparation of a sample except the addition of the sample. To ensure that there is no contamination or carryover in the GC column or the ion source, the method blank should be run prior to each sample. 

The heart of the mass spectrometer is the mass analyzer, the function of which is to measure the mass-to-charge ratios of ions and provide a means of their identification. This is achieved by a combination of a dispersive action to separate the ions according to their m/e ratios and a focusing action to maximize the resolved ion intensities... 

The power of mass spectrometry lies in the fact that the mass spectra of many compounds are sufficiently specific to allow their identification with a high degree of confidence, if not with complete certainty. If the analyte of interest is encountered as part of a mixture, however, the mass spectrum obtained will contain ions from all of the compounds present and, particularly if the analyte of interest is a minor component of that mixture, identification with any degree of certainty is made much more difficult, if not impossible. The combination of the separation capability of chromatography to allow pure compounds to be introduced into the mass spectrometer with the identification capability of the mass spectrometer is clearly therefore advantageous, particularly as many compounds with similar or identical retention characteristics have quite different mass spectra and can therefore be differentiated. This extra specificity allows quantitation to be carried out which, with chromatography alone, would not be possible. 

An advantage of the mass spectrometer as a detector is that it may allow differentiation of compounds with similar retention characteristics or may allow the identification and/or quantitative determination of components that are only partially resolved chromatographicaUy, or even those that are totally unresolved. This may reduce the time required for method development and is discussed in more detail in Chapter 3. 

A more definitive identification may be obtained by combining retention characteristics with more specific information from an appropriate detector. Arguably, the most information-rich HPLC detectors for the general identification problem are the diode-array UV detector, which allows a complete UV spectrum of an analyte to be obtained as it elutes from a column, and the mass spectrometer. The UV spectrum often allows the class of componnd to be determined but the... 

The mass spectrometer provides the most definitive identification of aU of the HPLC detectors. It allows the molecular weight of the analyte to be determined - this is the single most discriminating piece of information that may be obtained - which, together with the structural information that may be generated, often allows an unequivocal identification to be made. 

The high selectivity of the mass spectrometer often provides this identification capability on chromatographically umesolved or partially resolved components. 

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