Mass Spectrometry—Finding the Molecular Ion and What It Can Tell You: An Undergraduate Organic Laboratory Experiment

Mass spectrometry is a widely used method to obtain information about the structures of molecules. This technique was introduced to beginning first-year organic chemistry students as an experiment that focused on the identification of the molecular ion from experimental data. After students had correctly identified the molecular ion in their samples, they learn other information that can be deduced from the molecular ion.