Handbook: Evolved gas analysis: collected applications

Mass spectrometry is an extremely sensitive method for the detection and identification of traces of gaseous substances. The technique can quantify atoms or molecules and provide chemical and structural information (functional groups and side chains) on the compounds analysed…

In the mass spectrometers typically used for hyphenated techniques, sample molecules enter the mass spectrometer through an ion source where they are bombarded with a beam of high-energy electrons (usually about 70 eV). This energy is greater than the ionization potentials and bond strengths of organic substances. It is in fact sufficient to remove one (or more) electrons from molecules to form positively charged molecular ions. The excess energy also causes extensive fragmentation of the molecule with the formation of many different positively charged fragment ions according to complex pathways. The fragment ions formed are, however, directly related to the structure of the molecule under investigation,