Hard ionization

{
  "id": "MLC-T-CHM-013144",
  "term": "Hard ionization",
  "field": "Chemistry",
  "definition": "An ionization process in mass spectrometry that imparts a large amount of internal energy to an analyte molecule. This excess energy causes the resulting molecular ion to undergo extensive and reproducible fragmentation into smaller, characteristic ions. In contrast to soft ionization, which produces abundant molecular ions with little fragmentation, hard ionization methods like electron ionization are used for structural elucidation based on the fragment patterns.",
  "subject": "Analytical Chemistry",
  "see_also": [
    "soft ionization"
  ],
  "references": [
    "PAC, 2013, 85, 1515. 'Definitions of terms relating to mass spectrometry (IUPAC Recommendations 2013)' on page 1547 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-06-04-06)"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/chemistry/hard-ionization/"
}