Our Experience

A Regional Mass Spectrometry Facility was established in late 1983 in the Chemistry Department at the University of California Riverside. From its start in 1983, it has been available to any researcher with the need for mass spectrometry analyses. In addition to providing these analyses for our on campus researchers, during our over 30 years of existence we have helped over 560 faculty or private firm professionals from over 180 institutions outside of UCR with their mass spectrometry needs. Users have come to us from 40 states, 6 foreign countries, and have included 5 Nobel Laureates. We have analyzed a wide variety of chemical species which up to now have included 49 elements from the preiodic table. In recent years we have expanded our analyses to  more biological molecules, including proteins and peptides. We continue to encourage all researchers to take advantage of our considerable experience when they consider their needs for MS analyses.

Our philosophy has always been to work closely with users in order to determine the best approach that will most quickly perform the analyses. When one technique does not seem to confirm an expected MW, we automatically try others to confirm or to provide information about the unexpected species.

Two of our current four instruments have the ability to obtain accurate mass data from which we can provide molecular formula information. The two other instruments provide MS/MS data in lieu of exact mass measurements.

Since 1988, the mass spectrometry laboratory has been a part of the Analytical Chemistry Instrumentation Facility (ACIF) within the Chemistry Department.  Analytical capabilities encompassed include NMR, Optical Spectroscopy, and X-Ray Crystallography.