A mass spectrometer has three essential needs: a means for producing ions, in this case (mostly) singly charged atoms; a means for separating these ions in space or in time by their mass-to-charge rat...A mass spectrometer has three essential needs: a means for producing ions, in this case (mostly) singly charged atoms; a means for separating these ions in space or in time by their mass-to-charge ratios; and a means for counting the number of ions for each mass-to-charge ratio.
MS analyses of sensitive biological samples rarely use magnetic sector ionization. Instead, they typically use either electrospray ionization (ESI) or matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALD...MS analyses of sensitive biological samples rarely use magnetic sector ionization. Instead, they typically use either electrospray ionization (ESI) or matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI), typically linked to a time-of-flight (TOF) mass analyzer. Both ESI and MALDI are soft ionization methods that produce charged molecules with little fragmentation, even with sensitive biological samples of very high molecular weight.
