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ACD/Labs Blog

Arvin Moser
Characteristic isotopic patterns in MS can assist the elucidator in revealing the presence or absence of atoms. For the Br, Cl, S and Si atoms, a good approach is to examine the peak intensity of the A+2 signal. The respective contributions by the isotopes 81Br, 37Cl, 34S and 30Si are approximately 49.3, 24.3, 4.2 and...

Arvin Moser
Part 1 presented a challenge to determine an experiment to distinguish two very similar products from each other, namely 3-methyl-5-(pyridin-2-yloxy)pyridine and 5′-methyl-2H-1,3′-bipyridin-2-one. The products have identical formula weights and the LC/MS and 1H NMR are too similar to draw any conclusion from. The first step is to determine what is different between the two products...

Arvin Moser
Many organic chemists—if not all—check to see if a synthetic reaction is complete via TLC and LC/MS and/or 1H NMR. At the same time, the chemists are using the analytical data to verify that the final product is what they intended on making. In some cases, LC/MS and 1H NMR do not adequately distinguish one potential product...

Arvin Moser
Whenever a GC column is used to identify and/or quantify a sample, the column stationary phase can bleed into the MS source along with the sample. High column bleed can hinder the analysis of a sample. The resulting spectral interference typically manifests itself as discrete peaks and/or an increase in the drift of the baseline, which...

Arvin Moser
With any type of data, there is an inherent risk of misinterpretation. My advice to elucidators is to consider multiple solutions and examine each one thoroughly. In the end, the answer to any problem set lies in tying together the bits of information in hopes of understanding the bigger picture. Recap of the problem: The...

Arvin Moser
Structure elucidators will routinely use data from multiple techniques such as MS and NMR to build a proposed structure(s). When dealing with data from multiple techniques, the issue may arise that the data seem to contradict each other. In these cases, it is best to step back and re-evaluate the data from a different angle....

Arvin Moser
Tandem mass spectrometry involves the process of selecting and separating a product ion(s) (or daughter ion(s)) and fragmenting it in a second mass analyzer. This is commonly referred to as MS/MS or MS2. Additional tandem processes can be applied to ions in the MS/MS data to create MS3 data, and so forth. The metabolites A...

Arvin Moser
Peak matching involves the process of comparing spectral data from a parent or starting material to an unknown compound. (The unknown compound can be referred more specifically as the product, impurity, degradant, metabolite, etc.). The similarities between the data indicate regions that have not changed while the differences indicate regions of change. The full scan...