ABSTRACT
The mass spectrometer is widely used as an analytical tool in the process industries. All mass spectrometers have the common property of being able to separate ions of a particular atomic or molecular species by their mass-to-charge ratios. Process mass spectrometers offer levels of performance, versatility, and flexibility that in many cases exceed those of gas chromatographs. The increased use of mass spectrometers in the process industry is the result of properly combining the sample stream, the analyzer, and the data acquisition system into a reliable working unit. Most process mass spectrometers have dual filament assemblies that allow switching from one to the other filament without any downtime. There are three types of process mass spectrometers; magnetic sector, quadruple filter, and time-of-flight. In time-of-flight mass spectrometers, the ionized sample is subjected to a negative-polarity-accelerating field and is allowed to pass through a drift region.
