All News
Soil and chemical testing company to open inorganics laboratory
July 6th 2009Envirolab, UK soil and chemical testing company, will be expanding its analytical remit with the addition of a £1 million inorganics laboratory. The company will now be capable of analysis on all common inorganic contaminants, virtually eliminating subcontracted services and saving around £500,000 per year.
Application of Microbore UHPLC–MS-MS to the Quantitation of In Vivo Pharmacokinetic Study Samples
July 1st 2009Liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS-MS) is the primary bioanalytical technique used today within the pharmaceutical industry for the quantitation of small molecules in biological matrices such as plasma. In recent years, chromatographic resolution has been improved with the development of ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) systems that utilize smaller diameter particles (< 3 μm) and operate at pressures > 5000 psi. While most LC systems utilized for this application are optimized for columns with internal diameters (i.d.) between 2.0 and 4.6 mm, a new UHPLC system designed for microbore columns (≤ 1 mm i.d.) has been introduced recently. This article will discuss the advantages of using a microbore UHPLC system coupled with a tandem mass spectrometer for the quantitation of in vivo pharmacokinetic samples. These advantages include reduced sample and solvent consumption, improved chromatographic resolution and speed, and reduced mass spectrometer source..
Anatomy of an Ion's Fragmentation After Electron Ionization, Part II
July 1st 2009Determining an organic compound's structure from its mass spectrum is challenging. If, as in the case of soft ionization - chemical ionization (CI), atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), field ionization (FI), electrospray (ES), atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI), or fast atom bombardment (FAB) - the mass spectrum only provides the mass of the intact molecule, the challenge can be even greater. At best, an elemental composition can be determined if the measured mass is sufficiently accurate; however, many of these elemental compositions represent large numbers of compounds. There are 127 compounds in the NIST08 Mass Spectral Database that have the elemental composition C10H20O. Without an accurate mass measurement, the challenge is even more overwhelming. The elemental composition C10H20O has a nominal mass of 156 Da. The NIST08 Mass Spectral Database has 684 compounds with this nominal mass. To get past this point of an elemental composition, fragmentation of the ion..
Combating Terrorism with Mass Spectrometry — Screening People for Explosives
July 1st 2009In this article, we review the capabilities and challenges of deploying mass spectrometry (MS) to homeland security screening requirements. The fidelity of MS for chemical analysis is well accepted; however, the effectiveness of an overall system in real-world work environments depends on solving big challenges in sample collection, speed of analysis, and ease-of-use, and maintaining continuous reliability. We compare MS to the more commonly used security method of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and illustrate the significant improvements that MS can provide. We then describe one of the first introductions of MS in homeland security, that being the screening of people for concealed explosives using a walk-through portal device.
