Jul 15 2007
Agilent Technologieshas expanded use of its revolutionary, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) chip to its triple quadrupole (QQQ) and quadrupole-time of flight (Q-TOF) mass spectrometers.
The move enables both of these chip/mass spectrometer systems to perform small molecule analysis and completes the chip's expansion across Agilent's entire liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) portfolio.
Agilent's HPLC chip technology is an innovative form of liquid chromatography separation that replaces conventional LC nanoflow column and microvalves with a simple, compact microfluidics chip.
Smaller than a credit card, the chip seamlessly integrates the sample enrichment and separation capability of a nanoflow LC system with the single emitter per instrument and intricate connections used for electrospray mass spectrometry. The technology eliminates 50 percent of the fittings and connections typically required in nanoflow LC/MS systems, dramatically reducing the possibility of leaks and dead volumes, and significantly improving ease-of-use, sensitivity, productivity and reliability during analysis.
Agilent's HPLC Chip technology delivers stable, reproducible nanospray, critical for high-sensitivity quantitative QQQ applications for small molecules. The expansion announced today enables researchers to move beyond the HPLC chip's early protein-identification applications to the small molecule arena.
"Where sample size is limited, quantitative nanospray on the QQQ in particular will offer special opportunities, providing substantial savings to customers in sample preparation alone," said Agilent's Fred Strohmeier, vice president and general manager, Liquid Phase Separations Division. "It will have special use for life sciences, environmental and forensic applications, where researchers often deal with low amounts of sample.
"For these applications, conventional nanospray isn't reliable enough for routine use and is difficult to implement and maintain," said Strohmeier. "With the HPLC chip, in combination with Agilent's LC/MS portfolio, it's finally accessible for these applications -- and in a remarkably easy-to-use format."
For further information about Agilent's life sciences and chemical analysis solutions, visit Agilent online at www.chem.agilent.com .
About the Products
Mass spectrometry is used to identify organic compounds and contaminants through analysis of their ion fragments. It is used in food safety, environmental testing, forensics and proteomics research, as well as drug discovery, development and manufacturing QA/QC.
The Agilent 6410 Triple Quadrupole provides femtogram-level sensitivity -- comparable to the most expensive instruments of this class -- along with Agilent reliability and a 30 percent to 50 percent lower price. It is used primarily for environmental, food safety, forensics and pharmaceutical applications.
The Agilent 6510 Q-TOF provides superior analytical performance compared with the most expensive high-performance Q-TOF instruments. It simultaneously offers attomole sensitivity, routine mass accuracy better than 3 ppm, and 3.5 orders of magnitude in-spectra dynamic range. It enables fast data acquisition at 20 spectra/second or 1 MS and 5 MS/MS per second in data-dependent mode.
For more information about these products, contact your sales representative or the Agilent Customer Call Center (phone numbers by country available online at www.chem.agilent.com/scripts/cag_feedback.asp ).
About Agilent in Mass Spectrometry
Agilent is a leading provider of GC/MS, LC/MS and ICP-MS technologies for organic and inorganic spectroscopy. Among the company's key products are the Agilent 5973 and the 5975C (announced today) inert GC/MSDs as well as the 7500 Series ICP-MS systems and the Agilent 6000 Series LC/MS single quadrupole, triple quadrupole, ion trap, TOF and Q-TOF instruments. Agilent provides the innovative HPLC-Chip/MS technology and the broadest range of ion sources in the industry. As a leader in separations and software, Agilent can address the entire customer workflow from sample introduction through data analysis.
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