The Application of Mass Spectrometry


Mass spectrometry is generally used by scientists of many fields to identify unknown components, determine and identify the isotopic composition of elements in a molecule, and to study the fundamentals of gas phase ion chemistry. Very common in analytical laboratories, Mass Spectrometry is invaluable for studying physical, chemical and biological properties throughout a variety of compounds.

Mass Spectrometry has found huge favour in most laboratories today because of far increased sensitivity compared to other means of determining compounds as well as the analyser (which is a mass-charge filter) brings about a reduction of background interference. Furthermore, Mass Spectrometry can be used to great effect in quantifying samples and determining the isotopic compositions of said samples. This method is known as Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry.

Furthermore, Trace gas analysis is the creation of ions which are injected into a flow, or a drift tube. The proton transfer reaction are variants of chemical ionization, which furthermore allows calculations of analyte concentrations from reaction kinetics without the need for calibration.

Otherwise, atom probes make use of Mass Spectrometry, which combines time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and field evaporation microscopy to map the location of individual atoms.

Arguably, the most established manufacturer of Mass Spectrometry instruments is American firm AMETEK Process Instruments (Or AMETEK-Dycor) who product process analysers on a worldwide scale. Their position is firmly held thanks to their plug and play usage of their Dycor quadrupoles with any other piece of Dycor manufactured electronics with the same or greater mass range.

The benefit of this is rather large – essentially, with AMETEK Dycor products, the user is able to operate and maintain the analyser themselves, which leads to greater process control, greater laboratory efficiency and far less margin of error.

AMETEK-Dycor have a solid range of products in their inventory as well.  From the DyMaxion RGA to value products such as the Dycor LC-D Series Residual Gas Analyser which certainly don’t skimp on features, but is the most cost-effective RGA on the market. To get AMETEK-Dycor products in the UK, Scanwel Ltd are the distributor for the UK and Ireland. Their line of AMETEK-Dycor products is comprehensive and can cover replacements, or new projects entirely.

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