Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Relative Masses
- Relative masses are masses of atoms
compared to carbon-12
- mass of an atom is
very tiny
- mass of one atom is compared to
the mass of a different atom- this
is its relative mass
- Relative atomic mass-
average mass of an atom of an
element
- relative atomic mass-
mass of an atom of an
isotope of an element
- relative molecular mass-
average mass of a molecule or
formula unit
- Relative masses can be
measured using a mass
spectrometer
- tells you the relative atomic mass,
relative molecular mass, relative
isotopic abundance, molecular
structure
- step 1- Vaporistation
- the sample is turned into gas
using an electrical heater
- step 2- Ionisation
- the gas particles are
bombarded with high energy
electrons to ionise them.
Electrons are knocked off the
particles leaving positive ions.
- step 3- Acceleration
- the positive ions are
accelerated by an electric
field.
- step 4- Deflection
- the positive ions paths are alternated with a
magnetic field- lighter ions have less momentum
and are deflected more than heavier ions- for a
given magnetic field ions with a particular
mass/charge ratio make it to the detector
- step 5- Detection
- the magnetic field strength is slowly
increased- as this happens different ions
can reach the detector- a mass spectrum is
produced.
- Relative atomic mass and relative isotopic
abudance can be worked out from a mass
spectrum
- step1
- for each peak read the %
relative isotopic
abundance and relative
isotopic mass- multiply
them together to get the
total mass for each
isotope
- step 2
- add up all the totals
- step 3
- divide answer by 100
- if the relative abundance is not given
as a % divide by the total relative
abundance instead of 100
- Mass spectrometry can be
used to find the relative
molecular mass