October 26, 2010
by Arvin Moser, Team Manager, Application Scientists, ACD/Labs
Characteristic isotopic patterns in MS can assist the elucidator in revealing the presence or absence of atoms. For the Br, Cl, S and Si atoms, a good approach is to examine the peak intensity of the A+2 signal. The respective contributions by the isotopes 81Br, 37Cl, 34S and 30Si are approximately 49.3, 24.3, 4.2 and 3.1%, respectively.
Below are the molecular ion regions for two EI mass spectra for the same unknown compound. The top MS was collected at 13 eV and the bottom was collected at 70 eV. A list of m/z and intensities are also provided. Given the carbon count to be 10 atoms, are any of the following atoms Br, Cl, S and/or Si present?
A special thanks goes to Scott Van Bramer for allowing me to use the data.