Chapter 2, Problem 2.139P

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

The masses of all possible $1+$ ions for boron trifluoride are to be calculated.

Concept introduction:

Mass spectrometry is a technique used to analyze the structure and chemical properties of different molecules. In this technique, molecules are bombarded with electrons in order to convert them into highly energetic positively charged ions, called molecular ions. The molecular ions may undergo further breakup into smaller ions, called fragment ions.

The molecular ions and the fragment ions are separated by deflection in a variable magnetic field according to their mass to charge ratio $\left(\text{m/e}\right)$.

The formula to calculate the molecular mass of a compound is,

$\text{Molecular mass}=\left[\begin{array}{l}\sum \left(\text{numer of atoms of the element}\right)\\ \left(\text{atomic mass of the element}\right)\end{array}\right]$ (1)