Mass Spectrometry: A Boon to Nuclear Industry

Abstract

What is Mass Spectrometry?Mass spectrometry is analytical instrument which has been used for more than a century with its initial work on mass charge ratio being carried out by W. Wien, J.J. Thomson, and other physicists [1]. Mass Spectroscopy is an analytical laboratory technique to separate the components of a sample by their mass. The sample is vaporized into a gas and then ionized. The ions are then accelerated through a potential difference and focused into a beam. The ion beam passes through a magnetic field which bends the charged stream. Lighter components or components with more ionic charge will deflect in the field more than heavier or less charged components. A detector counts the number of ions at different deflections and the data can be plotted as a 'spectrum' of different masses. Therefore it is clear that mass spectrometer performs a simple measurement that of mass. The earlier work in the measurement of mass had led to the discovery of isotopes and it was in the 1930s that these measurements were correlated to the chemical structures and therefore were used extensively for biological applications for the characterization of natural products. Further progress in the field of mass spectrometry including isotopic labeling methods, hyphenated techniques and softer ionization methods made it an ideal tool for the analysis of macromolecules [2]. With the various fields that employ mass spectrometry growing in number, nuclear industry is also an important area wherein applications of mass spectrometry exist. Chronological Development in Mass spectrometryThe earliest mass spectrometry was in 1897 with the discovery of electrons made by J.J.Thomson. Around 1919, the observation studies of isotopes using mass spectrometry were carried out by F.W. Aston created a mass spectrometer in which ions were dispersed by mass and focused by velocity. This design improved the mass spectrometer resolving power by an order of magnitude compared to that achieved by AbstractMass spectrometry is a versatile technique that is used for the determination of elements at the trace and ultratrace level along with the isotope ratios. The accuracy in the quantification of isotope ratios of radionuclides is essential for environmental monitoring, migration studies, dating, determination of burn-up of fuel, nuclear material accounting and radioactive waste control. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is advantageous due to its outstanding sensitivity, precision and good accuracy for isotope ratio measurements and enhanced figures of merit for the determination of isotope ratio measurements. These advantages can be enhanced by various other variations of ICP-MS like the use of a multiple ion collector device (MC-ICP-MS). The review gives an idea of the various applications in the nuclear field and touches upon some of the important elements used in nuclear industry.