Mass spectrometry

The sample is ionised

Electrospray ionisation

Sample is dissolved in a volatile solution and forced through a needle which is connected to the positive terminal of a high voltage power supply

Electron Impact

The sample is evaporated and electrons fired at it with an electron gun which knocks out the electrons leaving ions

This produces charged droplets which evaporate smaller and smaller until only a single positively

ion remains

These ions are then accelerated towards a negatively charged plate. Lighter ions or ions with a larger charge achieve a higher top speed

The ions then pass through a hole into the fight tube.

The ions then reach the detector lightest first here they pick up an electron which produces an electronic charge

This signal is passed to a computer creating a graph. Higher peaks mean more of the element in the sample