Patent ID: 9411941
Filing Date: 2016-08-09
CPC Classification: G01N,G06F,G06K,G16C,G16Z,H01J

Claim Text:
1. Method for identifying the elemental composition of a molecule and/or quantifying the presence of mono-isotopic elements in a molecule in a sample, whereby said molecule has a chemical formula Π α (Z α ) n with α an index running over a number of expected constituent atomic species of said molecule; Z n comprising the steps of: obtaining at least a part of an isotopic distribution from said sample by ionizing the molecules to generate charged molecules or molecule fragments and measuring a mass-to-charge ratio of the charged molecules or molecule fragments; obtaining a set of N computing from said set of peak heights a set of N obtaining a value of n wherein said value of n of the isotope of the atom species Z α with m α neutrons more than the lightest stable isotope of said atom species which has atomic mass number A α , whereby the masses at which the peak heights t j are observed are essentially 1 Da apart, whereby said set of N p −1 ratios of peak heights {circumflex over (t)} i with i=1 . . . N p −1 is computed recursively from said set of N p peak heights t j with j=1 . . . N p , using the steps of: