S1.2.3 – Mass spectra (HL)
📌 Relative atomic masses
- Mass spectrometers are used to produce mass spectra which help determine the abundance of isotopes of different atomic masses
- Mass spectrometers first vaporise the element and then ionise them into a cation. Following this, the positively charged ions are attracted to negatively charged plates and deflected by magnetic fields. The angle of deflection is used to calcualte the relative mass of the ion.
- Mass spectra are graphs that plot the % abundance against the mass/charge ratio of the ion. An example of this is given below