World record for mass spectrometry
8 Jun 2005 by Evoluted New Media
Scientists in Zurich have set a world record in mass spectrometry by observing the largest ever mass-to-charge ratio of over 1 Mio Dalton (MDa).
Scientists in Zurich have set a world record in mass spectrometry by observing the largest ever mass-to-charge ratio of over 1 Mio Dalton (MDa). Researchers in the team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology had to overcome several obstacles, including the intact vaporization and ionisation of the sample, as well as the detection of the very large ions. The team used modern soft ionisation techniques, which allow large molecules to be brought into the gas phase. To separate the molecules they used a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, which separates ions of different mass-to-charge ratio by their drift time through an evacuated flight tube. However, very large ions are nearly impossible to detect using conventional detectors. To overcome this the team used a superconducting tunnel junction detector developed by Swiss firm Comet AG. By doing this they managed to get interpretable mass spectra for immunoglobulin M (1 MDa), and a group of blood coagulation proteins known as the von willibrand factor (1.5 and 2 MDa).
Scientists in Zurich have set a world record in mass spectrometry by observing the largest ever mass-to-charge ratio of over 1 Mio Dalton (MDa).
Researchers in the team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology had to overcome several obstacles, including the intact vaporization and ionisation of the sample, as well as the detection of the very large ions.
The team used modern soft ionisation techniques, which allow large molecules to be brought into the gas phase. To separate the molecules they used a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, which separates ions of different mass-to-charge ratio by their drift time through an evacuated flight tube.
However, very large ions are nearly impossible to detect using conventional detectors. To overcome this the team used a superconducting tunnel junction detector developed by Swiss firm Comet AG. By doing this they managed to get interpretable mass spectra for immunoglobulin M (1 MDa), and a group of blood coagulation proteins known as the von willibrand factor (1.5 and 2 MDa).
