Riding its successful launch of the Acquity UPLC H-Class system incorporating the proven performance of Acquity UltraPerformance LC (UPLC) with the operational familiarity of traditional high performance liquid chromatography, Waters Corporation kicked off its 50th Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon) focused on its industry-leading family of UPLC solutions.
Reinforcing the impact of Acquity UPLC technology's application range, scientists from AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly presented their real-life success stories working both with this system and with Waters' Patrol UPLC system.
"The response to the new Acquity UPLC H-Class system introduced in late January has been tremendous, not only because of the system attributes but also because of its overall impact on the UPLC family," said Dr Rohit Khanna, vice president worldwide marketing for the Waters Division. "Early feedback from customers is that this system provides a powerful bridge for those who currently rely on HPLC but want the performance of UPLC today and in the future. With the Acquity UPLC H-Class gaining momentum, Waters' ability to provide a single, powerful LC platform from R&D to manufacturing is unmatched industry wide."
As the newest member of the UPLC family, the Acquity UPLC H-Class system combines performance, simplicity and flexibility to help more laboratories realise the scientific and business benefits of sub-2µm particle column technology. Beyond improving chromatographic performance when running UPLC columns as well as fully supporting HPLC columns, the Acquity UPLC H-Class system closely emulates HPLC workflows, making method transfer from HPLC to UPLC easier and more seamless (Fig. 1). Furthermore, the introduction of this system allows organisations to standardise their approach to LC with a common technology platform that makes the future transition from HPLC- to UPLC-based methods straightforward and practical - from compound discovery to product release.
Waters also used Pittcon 2010 to exhibit an array of new column chemistries for UPLC-based analytical solutions for the characterisation of biomolecules including glycoproteins, proteins and their aggregates, monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins.
Meanwhile PerkinElmer launched a new portfolio of Clarus gas chromatograph (GC) systems aimed at meeting the increasing productivity needs of laboratories concentrating on food, hydrocarbon processing, forensic, and environmental applications. The Clarus 680 GC provides chromatographers with greater ease of use and flexibility to enable increased productivity (Fig. 2). The new system incorporates a patented column oven, optimised capillary inlets and selective detectors as well as optional Swafer microchannel flow control technology.
"Increasingly, customers seek to increase sample throughput without sacrificing sensitivity or data quality," noted Eric Ziegler, vice president, chromatography and mass spectrometry, Analytical Sciences and Laboratory Services, PerkinElmer. "The Clarus 680 GC is designed to deliver not only higher levels of performance, but greater sample analysis throughput and operational simplicity."
PerkinElmer also used Pittcon to showcase several additions to its popular Chromera and Flexar product lines for liquid chromatography (LC). The Chromera chromatography data system for LC now includes PhotoDiode Array (PDA) detector control and 3D analysis. With real-time display of multichannel chromatograms and 3D contour graphics, Chromera provides an ideal solution for LC PDA analysis and also allows for peak integration, sequence generation and comprehensive reporting.
Thermo Fisher Scientific took the opportunity to announce the new Thermo Scientific ISQ single quadrupole gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) system with a novel, non-venting full-source removal capability (Fig. 3).
Featuring the new ExtractaBrite ion source, the ISQ system offers simplified operation and maximum uptime for uninterrupted productivity across routine GC-MS applications including forensics, toxicology, food safety and environmental. The ISQ GC-MS is a highly robust and rugged system that provides high-throughput sample analyses and 24/7 operation.
The new ExtractaBrite removable ion source is designed to provide maximum uptime and productivity by extending the length of time between required source maintenance. When the system requires maintenance, the time-consuming and labour intensive procedures including breaking the vacuum, cooling off, cleaning, reassembling and restoring associated with conventional systems are eliminated. The entire ion source can be removed without venting the analyser. The new ISQ single quadrupole GC-MS also offers an extended mass range, from 1.2 to 1100u, for analyses across a varied range of compounds.
Thermo Fisher says the ISQ system is ideally-suited for today's fast-paced gas chromatography methods. Advanced electronics allow the ISQ to acquire and write data to disc at accelerated rates for truly high-speed acquisition in real-world applications. The sequential full scan/selected ion monitoring (SIM) capability provides qualitative and quantitative analyses in a single injection, for confirmation and screening in the same analytical run.
YMC used the event to launch its Triart C18 hybrid HPLC column and bulk packing. The layered hybrid structure of the YMC-Triart C18 particle results in a material with very high chemical and physical durability. It can be used at any pH from 1 to 12 and may be used at elevated temperatures, too.
YMC-Triart C18 was developed utilising YMC experience in microreaction chemistry. The resulting uniformity and quality of the particles contribute to the chromatographic performance of the finished product. Excellent peak shape for all types of compounds results from YMC's use of a multi-reagent, multi-step, endcapping process that renders 'neutral' the analyte accessible residual silanol sites. The advanced end-capping process improves overall peak shape.
The physical and chemical durability, precision granulation, and advanced end-capping of YMC-Triart C18 combine to produce a reversed phase material that is durable and versatile and exhibits benchmark column-to-column and lot-to-lot reproducibility typical of YMC HPLC columns.
YMC-Triart is available in 3 and 5µm particles, with a pore size of 120 Å. Additonal chemistries are also available in prep particle sizes (10 micron and greater) on a custom basis for customer specific applications.
Alpha MOS's new database for aroma and chemical characterisation by gas chromatography analysis, AroChemBase, includes 2900 compounds. For a selected peak on a chromatogram, the library proposes a list of possible compounds. To facilitate identification, the compounds are sorted based on a unique recognition accuracy index. This index is based on the comparison of measured parameters (retention time, peak area on one or two columns) and theoretical ones. The higher the index, the higher the probability of correspondance. The specificity of this library is to provide the sensory attributes linked to a chemical compound, which makes it suitable for quality control or R&D applications with sensory considerations
