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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2003  > February  >
In the Laboratory
JCE Classroom Activity
Mass Spectra
JCE Editorial Staff
Journal of Chemical Education, Madison, WI 53715
Cover
February 2003
Vol. 80 No. 2
p. 176A
Full Text
Mass spectrometers are very useful tools for identifying molecules because they determine the masses of molecules and the masses of fragments of molecules. Fifteen years ago these measurements were limited to compounds of low molecular weight that could be easily placed in the gas phase. Since then, two new techniques have been developed that allow mass spectrometry to analyze larger, non-volatile molecules such as peptides and proteins. Half of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for using these techniques with proteins. In this Activity students solve puzzles that are analogous to finding the amino acid sequence of a peptide using mass spectrometry. Students are asked to identify words that have been broken into letters or groups of letters. Puzzle 1 uses letter fragments from a word; puzzles 2 and 3 use numbers that represent fragment “masses”, where each letter of the alphabet is assigned a numerical “mass”.
Supplement
This Activity is based on the JCE article by Gary A. Mabbott, "An Analogy for Teaching Interpretation of Mass Spectra" J. Chem. Educ. 1988, 65, 1052, which is available. A more advanced version of the Activity will also be available soon.
*  Contents JCE2003p0174AW.pdf
*  Download
JCE2003p0176W.pdf
More Information
*  Citation
 JCE Editorial Staff. J. Chem. Educ. 2003 80 176A.
*  Keywords
 Amino Acids; Introductory / High School Chemistry; Mass Spectrometry; Proteins / Peptides; Teaching / Learning Aids
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 December 6, 2002
February 28, 2005
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