Mass spec

• What is a molecular ion (M+)?

  Positive ion formed when a molecule loses an electron.
• What is a mass spectrometer?


  Detects the mass to charge ratio (m/z) of the molecular ion which gives you the Mr of the whole compound
• How do you find Mr of the whole compound?

  Look at the last peak on the spectrometer
• What is fragmentation?


  Where certain ions are broken down into smaller pieces known as fragment ions, this is formed from the breakdown of the molecular ions
• What does the simplest fragmentation split the compound into?


  It breaks it into a fragment ion and a radical
• common m/z ions?

  Ch3+=15

  Ch4+=16
• What are the practical applications of mass spectrometry?


  Drug testing-people found testosterone involved in meat which would give atheletes an advantage and mass spec was used