Can someone explain the concept of mass spectrometry to me in detail?
In a gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy or liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy instrument, the chromatography is used to separate compounds so that they arrive at the mass spectrometer separated in time. Once in the mass spectrometer, the compounds are ionized into a molecular ion plus many smaller ionized fragments. The MS separates these ions using a magnetic field. The identifying signature of a compound is based on the fragment profile of the masses of the fragments that are detected at one time.
