Mass spectrometry

Patent Granted Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical chemistry technique that measures the mass-to-charge ratio and abundance of gas-phase ions.[1] A mass spectrum (plural spectra) is a plot of the ion signal as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. The spectra are used to determine the elemental or isotopic signature of a sample, the masses of particles and of molecules, and to elucidate the chemical structures of molecules, such as peptides and other chemical compounds. Mass spectrometry works by ionizing chemical compounds to generate charged molecules or molecule fragments and measuring their mass-to-charge ratios.