Related Research Articles
In chemistry, an element is a pure substance consisting only of atoms that all have the same numbers of protons in their nuclei. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cannot be broken down into simpler substances by any chemical reaction. The number of protons in the nucleus is the defining property of an element, and is referred to as its atomic number – all atoms with the same atomic number are atoms of the same element. All of the baryonic matter of the universe is composed of chemical elements. When different elements undergo chemical reactions, atoms are rearranged into new compounds held together by chemical bonds. Only a minority of elements, such as silver and gold, are found uncombined as relatively pure native element minerals. Nearly all other naturally occurring elements occur in the Earth as compounds or mixtures. Air is primarily a mixture of the elements nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, though it does contain compounds including carbon dioxide and water.
The molecular mass (m) is the mass of a given molecule: it is measured in daltons. Different molecules of the same compound may have different molecular masses because they contain different isotopes of an element. The related quantity relative molecular mass, as defined by IUPAC, is the ratio of the mass of a molecule to the unified atomic mass unit and is unitless. The molecular mass and relative molecular mass are distinct from but related to the molar mass. The molar mass is defined as the mass of a given substance divided by the amount of a substance and is expressed in g/mol. The molar mass is usually the more appropriate figure when dealing with macroscopic (weigh-able) quantities of a substance.
The Avogadro constant (NA or L) is the proportionality factor that relates the number of constituent particles (usually molecules, atoms or ions) in a sample with the amount of substance in that sample. Its SI unit is the reciprocal mole, and it is defined exactly as NA = 6.02214076×1023 mol−1. It is named after the Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro. Although this is called Avogadro's constant (or number), he is not the chemist who determined its value. Stanislao Cannizzaro explained this number four years after Avogadro's death while at the Karlsruhe Congress in 1860.
The dalton or unified atomic mass unit is a unit of mass widely used in physics and chemistry. It is defined as 1⁄12 of the mass of an unbound neutral atom of carbon-12 in its nuclear and electronic ground state and at rest. The atomic mass constant, denoted mu is defined identically, giving mu = m(12C)/12 = 1 Da. A unit dalton is also approximately numerically equal to the molar mass of the same expressed in grams per mole. Prior to the 2019 redefinition of the SI base units these were numerically identical by definition and are still treated as such for most purposes.
In chemistry, the molar mass of a chemical compound is defined as the mass of a sample of that compound divided by the amount of substance in that sample, measured in moles. The molar mass is a bulk, not molecular, property of a substance. The molar mass is an average of many instances of the compound, which often vary in mass due to the presence of isotopes. Most commonly, the molar mass is computed from the standard atomic weights and is thus a terrestrial average and a function of the relative abundance of the isotopes of the constituent atoms on Earth. The molar mass is appropriate for converting between the mass of a substance and the amount of a substance for bulk quantities.
In science and engineering, the parts-per notation is a set of pseudo-units to describe small values of miscellaneous dimensionless quantities, e.g. mole fraction or mass fraction. Since these fractions are quantity-per-quantity measures, they are pure numbers with no associated units of measurement. Commonly used are parts-per-million, parts-per-billion, parts-per-trillion and parts-per-quadrillion. This notation is not part of the International System of Units (SI) system and its meaning is ambiguous.
Relative atomic mass or atomic weight is a dimensionless physical quantity defined as the ratio of the average mass of atoms of a chemical element in a given sample to the atomic mass constant. The atomic mass constant is defined as being 1/12 of the mass of a carbon-12 atom. Since both quantities in the ratio are masses, the resulting value is dimensionless; hence the value is said to be relative.
A mass spectrum is a histogram plot of intensity vs. mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) in a chemical sample, usually acquired using an instrument called a mass spectrometer. Not all mass spectra of a given substance are the same; for example, some mass spectrometers break the analyte molecules into fragments; others observe the intact molecular masses with little fragmentation. A mass spectrum can represent many different types of information based on the type of mass spectrometer and the specific experiment applied. Common fragmentation processes for organic molecules are the McLafferty rearrangement and alpha cleavage. Straight chain alkanes and alkyl groups produce a typical series of peaks: 29 (CH3CH2+), 43 (CH3CH2CH2+), 57 (CH3CH2CH2CH2+), 71 (CH3CH2CH2CH2CH2+) etc.
In chemistry, the amount of substance n in a given sample of matter is defined as the quantity or number of discrete atomic-scale particles in it divided by the Avogadro constant NA. The particles or entities may be molecules, atoms, ions, electrons, or other, depending on the context, and should be specified (e.g. amount of sodium chloride nNaCl). The value of the Avogadro constant NA has been defined as 6.02214076×1023 mol−1. The mole (symbol: mol) is a unit of amount of substance in the International System of Units, defined (since 2019) by fixing the Avogadro constant at the given value. Sometimes, the amount of substance is referred to as the chemical amount.
Hydrogen (1H) has three naturally occurring isotopes, sometimes denoted 1
H
, 2
H
, and 3
H
. 1
H
and 2
H
are stable, while 3
H
has a half-life of 12.32(2) years. Heavier isotopes also exist, all of which are synthetic and have a half-life of less than one zeptosecond (10−21 s). Of these, 5H is the least stable, while 7H is the most.
Monoisotopic mass (Mmi) is one of several types of molecular masses used in mass spectrometry. The theoretical monoisotopic mass of a molecule is computed by taking the sum of the accurate masses of the most abundant naturally occurring stable isotope of each atom in the molecule. For small molecules made up of low atomic number elements the monoisotopic mass is observable as an isotopically pure peak in a mass spectrum. This differs from the nominal molecular mass, which is the sum of the mass number of the primary isotope of each atom in the molecule and is an integer. It also is different from the molar mass, which is a type of average mass. For some atoms like carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur the Mmi of these elements is exactly the same as the mass of its natural isotope, which is the lightest one. However, this does not hold true for all atoms. Iron's most common isotope has a mass number of 56, while the stable isotopes of iron vary in mass number from 54 to 58. Monoisotopic mass is typically expressed in daltons (Da), also called unified atomic mass units (u).
The mass-to-charge ratio (m/Q) is a physical quantity relating the mass and the electric charge of a given particle, expressed in units of kilograms per coulomb (kg/C). It is most widely used in the electrodynamics of charged particles, e.g. in electron optics and ion optics.
The thomson is a unit that has appeared infrequently in scientific literature relating to the field of mass spectrometry as a unit of mass-to-charge ratio. The unit was proposed by Cooks and Rockwood naming it in honour of J. J. Thomson who measured the mass-to-charge ratio of electrons and ions.
Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, also known as the Green Book, is a compilation of terms and symbols widely used in the field of physical chemistry. It also includes a table of physical constants, tables listing the properties of elementary particles, chemical elements, and nuclides, and information about conversion factors that are commonly used in physical chemistry. The Green Book is published by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and is based on published, citeable sources. Information in the Green Book is synthesized from recommendations made by IUPAC, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), including recommendations listed in the IUPAP Red Book Symbols, Units, Nomenclature and Fundamental Constants in Physics and in the ISO 31 standards.
The mass recorded by a mass spectrometer can refer to different physical quantities depending on the characteristics of the instrument and the manner in which the mass spectrum is displayed.
The molar mass constant, usually denoted by Mu, is a physical constant defined as the ratio of the molar mass of an element and its relative mass.
Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number and position in the periodic table, and that differ in nucleon numbers due to different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. While all isotopes of a given element have almost the same chemical properties, they have different atomic masses and physical properties.
The atomic mass is the mass of an atom. Although the SI unit of mass is the kilogram, atomic mass is often expressed in the non-SI unit atomic mass unit (amu) or unified mass (u) or dalton, where 1 amu or 1 u or 1 Da is defined as 1⁄12 of the mass of a single carbon-12 atom, at rest. The protons and neutrons of the nucleus account for nearly all of the total mass of atoms, with the electrons and nuclear binding energy making minor contributions. Thus, the numeric value of the atomic mass when expressed in daltons has nearly the same value as the mass number. Conversion between mass in kilograms and mass in daltons can be done using the atomic mass constant .
In mass spectrometry, resolution is a measure of the ability to distinguish two peaks of slightly different mass-to-charge ratios ΔM, in a mass spectrum.
The Kendrick mass is defined by setting the mass of a chosen molecular fragment, typically CH2, to an integer value in amu (atomic mass units). It is different from the IUPAC definition, which is based on setting the mass of 12C isotope to exactly 12 amu. The Kendrick mass is often used to identify homologous compounds differing only by a number of base units in high resolution mass spectra. This definition of mass was first suggested in 1963 by chemist Edward Kendrick, and it has been adopted by scientists working in the area of high-resolution mass spectrometry, environmental analysis, proteomics, petroleomics, metabolomics, polymer analysis, etc.
References
- ↑ "Measurement unit conversion: millidalton". Convert Units. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
- ↑ "IU14. Report to the 2005 General Assembly". IUPAP. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
- ↑ Ekman, Rolf; Silberring, Jerzy; Westman-Brinkmalm, Ann; Kraj, Agnieszka, eds. (2008). Mass Spectrometry: Instrumentation, Interpretation, and Applications. John Wiley & Sons. p. 5. doi:10.1002/9780470395813. ISBN 978-0-470-39581-3.