Thermo Fisher Scientific Introduces Speciation Analysis Capabilities for High Resolution ICP-MS

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has announces the addition of a new kit for coupling Gas Chromatography (GC) to the Thermo Scientific high resolution ICP-MS ELEMENT 2 and ELEMENT XR.

According to Thermo Scientific, designed to enable scientists to use a high resolution magnetic sector field ICP-MS as a detector for GC, the kit extends traditional ICP-MS capabilities for elemental speciation analysis of volatile compounds.

This system is the latest offering, further expanding the comprehensive capabilities of the Thermo Scientific ELEMENT 2 and ELEMENT XR which are manufactured at the company’s Mass Spectrometry Center of Excellence, based in Bremen.

In recent years there has been increasing interest in the ability to perform measurements of not just the total concentration of elements in samples, but also the relative levels of the different species of elements that are present. This is because each molecular compound or oxidation state of an element exhibits properties such as toxicity, reactivity or metabolic pathway in living organisms.

An effective analytical approach to enable this type of speciated elemental analysis is by separation, using a chromatographic technique, and detection using the highly sensitive element specific technique of ICP-MS. Separations for volatile species can be performed using gas chromatography (GC), whilst detection with high resolution ICP-MS offers the benefit of increased sensitivity and selectivity.

The Thermo Scientific kit can enable analysts working in the environmental, clinical and biological markets to detect and quantify the volatile compounds of elements such as sulfur, tin, phosphorous, mercury and bromine, at lower levels than traditional techniques thanks to the solution’s high sensitivity and, in some cases, the ability to resolve interfering ions from the mass spectrum.

Thermo Fisher Scientific already offers a GC coupling kit for the Thermo Scientific XSERIES 2 quadrupole-based ICP-MS. and has used the same dual sample introduction for the high resolution ICP-MS. This offers simple instrument set up and internal standardization using simultaneously nebulized solutions in parallel to the GC sample gas stream.