This application can be used to predict chemical formula from knowledge of a chemical mass. Use of a mass spectrometer to accurately determine chemical mass permits a relatively limited number of possible formulae to be predicted and this list can be further reduced if knowledge of the relative abundance of mass+1 and mass+2 isotopes of the molecule are known.
The analysis is useful to mass spectroscopists, including those with GC-MS and LC-MS instruments as it can be used to identify likely candidate formula for unknown chemical compounds. It is also an instructive tool for students of chemistry and biology to investigate questions relating to chemical structures and isotope abundances.
An alternative application that can be used to predict accurate molecular mass and isotope abundance for specified formulae is also included in BioLab Assistant. This application is not demonstrated here.