Mass spectrometer
Espectrómetro de masas
- Date
- 1912–1919 · confidence high
- Place
- Cambridge, England (Cavendish Laboratory)
- Credited to
- Francis Aston (mass spectrograph, 1919); J. J. Thomson (positive rays, neon isotopes, 1912); Arthur Dempster (Chicago, 1918)
- People
- 👤 Arthur Jeffrey Dempster1886–1950👤 Francis Aston1877–1945👤 J. J. Thomson1856–1940
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Instrument that separates ions by their mass-to-charge ratio using electric and magnetic fields. It demonstrated the existence of isotopes and measured atomic masses precisely.
Merged with 'Mass spectrometry' (duplicate, 23-09-2026).
What it led to
- Discovery of isotopes (uranium-235, Dempster 1935)
- Isotope separation and the atomic bomb
- Analytical chemistry, geochronology and proteomics
- isotopic analysis
- trace analytical chemistry
- proteomics
- nuclear energy (isotope masses)
Built on
- Vacuum pump (air pump)1650
- Lorentz force1895
- The electron1897
- Cathode ray tube (Braun tube)1897
- Goldstein's canal rays
- Thomson's parabolas (1912)
Made possible
- Discovery of deuterium1931
- Buckminsterfullerene (C60)1985
- Calutron
- Isotopic dating
- Organic mass spectrometry
- commercial mass spectrometers
- MALDI and electrospray (1980s)