When the vaporised organic sample passes into the ionisation chamber of a mass spectrometer, it is bombarded by a stream of electrons. These electrons have a high enough energy to knock an electron off an organic molecule to form a positive ion. This ion is called the molecular ion – or sometimes the parent ion.
Simply so, what is the parent peak?
Base peak: The most intense (tallest) peak in a mass spectrum, due to the ion with the greatest relative abundance (relative intensity; height of peak along the spectrum’s y-axis). Not to be confused with molecular ion: base peaks are not always molecular ions, and molecular ions are not always base peaks.
Similarly, why are only cations detected in mass spectrometry? Only cations are detected. – Radicals are “invisible” in MS. depends on the mass to charge ratio (m/z). the amount of deflection observed is usually dependent on the mass of the ion.
Secondly, what is daughter ion?
Daughter ion. An electrically charged product of reaction of a particular parent (precursor) ion. In general such ions have a direct relationship with a particular precursor ion and may relate to a unique state of the precursor ion.
What does base peak tell you?
The base peak is the tallest peak because it represents the commonest fragment ion to be formed – either because there are several ways in which it could be produced during fragmentation of the parent ion, or because it is a particularly stable ion.
