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If you don't know the right bit of maths, just learn this ratio! If you have the necessary maths, you could show that the chances of these arrangements occurring are in the ratio of 9:6:1 - and this is the ratio of the peak heights. The carbons and hydrogens add up to 28 - so the various possible molecular ions could be: The lines in the molecular ion region (at m/z values of 98, 100 ands 102) arise because of the various combinations of chlorine isotopes that are possible. It was necessary because otherwise an important line in the molecular ion region would have been missing. This contains more minor lines than other mass spectra in this section. Note: This spectrum has been simplified by omitting all the minor lines with peak heights of less than 1% of the base peak (the tallest peak). Note: If you aren't sure about fragmentation you might like to have a look at this link. The fragmentation that produced those ions was: That pattern is due to fragment ions also containing one chlorine atom - which could either be 35Cl or 37Cl. You might also have noticed the same pattern at m/z = 63 and m/z = 65 in the mass spectrum above. if you look at the molecular ion region, and find two peaks separated by 2 m/z units and with a ratio of 3 : 1 in the peak heights, that tells you that the molecule contains 1 chlorine atom. That means that there will be 3 times more molecules containing the lighter isotope than the heavier one. That reflects the fact that chlorine contains 3 times as much of the 35Cl isotope as the 37Cl one.
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Notice that the peak heights are in the ratio of 3 : 1. The one containing 37Cl has a relative formula mass of 80 - hence the two lines at m/z = 78 and m/z = 80. The molecular ion containing the 35Cl isotope has a relative formula mass of 78. The molecular ion peaks (M+ and M+2) each contain one chlorine atom - but the chlorine can be either of the two chlorine isotopes, 35Cl and 37Cl.
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With one exception, they have been simplified by omitting all the minor lines with peak heights of 2% or less of the base peak (the tallest peak). Note: All the mass spectra on this page have been drawn using data from the Spectral Data Base System for Organic Compounds ( SDBS) at the National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research in Japan. The effect of chlorine or bromine atoms on the mass spectrum of an organic compound If you haven't already done so, explore the mass spectrometry menu before you go on. Note: Before you start this page, it would be a good idea to have a reasonable understanding about how a mass spectrum is produced and the sort of information you can get from it. It also deals briefly with the origin of the M+4 peak in compounds containing two chlorine atoms. This page explains how the M+2 peak in a mass spectrum arises from the presence of chlorine or bromine atoms in an organic compound.
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