After all, you worked hard to prepare that sample. The answer is no, your sample is destroyed during the analysis. ... Molecules in your sample become ionized, enter the mass spectrometer, and eventually collide with the mass analyzer electrodes. Once a year or so, we open the instrument and clean off the electrodes.

Is mass spectrometry destructive?

Unlike some analytical tests used in forensics, mass spectrometry can often definitively identify the components within a sample. ... Unfortunately mass spectrometry is a destructive technique, which is not ideal in forensic investigations if there is a limited amount of sample available for analysis.

What are the disadvantages of mass spectrometry?

Disadvantages of mass spec are that it isn't very good at identifying hydrocarbons that produce similar ions and it's unable to tell optical and geometrical isomers apart. The disadvantages are compensated for by combining MS with other techniques, such as gas chromatography (GC-MS).