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Mass Spectrometry Quiz

Mass Spectrometry Quiz

Test your knowledge on mass spectrometry and its history

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  • 1.
    The first on-line coupling of gas chromatography to a mass spectrometer was reported in 1959. What type of spectrometer was used for this purpose?

    Your answer:
    Correct answer:
    The first GC/MS experiments were carried out by Fred McLafferty and Roland Gohlke at Dow Chemical with Bill Wiley and Ian McLaren at Bendix Research Laboratories. They used a Bendix timeof- flight mass spectrometer, which had been commercially introduced in 1956. The instrument was fast enough to keep up with the changing output of the GC column.

  • 2.
    How long would be a paper needed for printing a profile mass spectrum measured in the m/z 0 1000 range at a resolution of 50,000 at m/z 500 if the peaks were to be 1 mm wide at their half maximum? Let us consider a constant width of all peaks.

    Your answer:
    Correct answer:

    The resolution can be expressed as (m/z)/Δ(m/z), where Δ (m/z) is the peak width at 50 % of its maximum. For a resolution of 50,000 at m/z 500, the value of Δ(m/z) is 0.01. If the Δ(m/z) is to correspond to 1 mm, then the total width of the spectral record equals 1000/0.01 mm, which is 100,000 mm, which is 100 m.

  • 3.
    What is the electric charge of an ion with m/z = m?

    Your answer:
    Correct answer:

    The particle carries one elementary charge, the value of which is 1.602 176 634 × 10−19 C (exactly).

  • 4.
    What is the trajectory of a charged particle moving perpendicularly to a uniform magnetic field in a vacuum?

    Your answer:
    Correct answer:

    The magnetic force is perpendicular to the velocity so that it does no work on the charged particle. The particle’s kinetic energy and speed thus remain constant. The direction of motion is affected but not the speed.

  • 5.
    Joseph John Thomson (1856 - 1940), Nobel laureate in physics, is credited with the invention of the mass spectrometer, the discovery of the electron and isotopes of stable elements. A lesser-known fact is his father's profession. What was it?

    Your answer:
    Correct answer:

    His father, Joseph James Thomson, ran an antiquarian bookshop founded by Thomson’s great-grandfather. [Wikipedia]

  • 6.
    What is the base peak in the mass spectrum?

    Your answer:
    Correct answer:

    The base peak is the peak with the greatest intensity among all peaks in the spectrum. The intensity of each peak in the spectrum is expressed as a percentage relative to the intensity of the base peak.

  • 7.
    John Zeleny was an American physicist whose work laid the theoretical foundations of electrospray ionization. He was born in 1872 into a family of immigrants from Europe. Where did his family come from?

    Your answer:
    Correct answer:

    The parents of John Zelený, Antonín Zelený and Josefa Pitková, came from Křídla, a small village near Žďár nad Sázavou in Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic).

  • 8.
    Who first reported the fragmentation after the gamma hydrogen rearrangement to an unsaturated group via a sixmembered intermediate?

    Your answer:
    Correct answer:
    It was first reported by Australian A. J. C. Nicholson in 1954 (Trans. Faraday Soc. 50: 1067-1073). The reaction description was published five years later (Anal. Chem. 1959, 31: 82–87) by the American chemist Fred McLafferty, by whose name we now refer to the rearrangement (McLafferty rearrangement).

  • 9.
    Chemical ionization (CI) is a soft ionization technique used in mass spectrometry. Who discovered it?

    Your answer:
    Correct answer:

    Chemical ionization was discovered in the laboratories of the Humble Oil and Refining Company in Baytown, TX. Munson and Field’s seminal paper on chemical ionization was published in 1966.  [https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00964a001]

  • 10.
    Who built the first mass spectrometer in Czechia?

    Your answer:
    Correct answer:

    The first mass spectrometer in the country was built in the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Four young scientists, Vladimír Čermák, Vladimír Hanuš, Čestmír Jech and Josef Cabicar, took part in its construction. At the time of the post-war shortage, it was very difficult to find the necessary components; some parts originated from captured German military equipment. The mass spectrometer was of the Nier type with simple focusing and 60° magnetic field, pumped by a mercury diffusion pump. The device was completed after two years, in 1953. The construction of this instrument was an extraordinary achievement awarded a year later by the State Prize. [Z. Herman, Chem. Listy 104, 955, 2010]

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