News from LabRulezGCMS Library - Week 3, 2025
LabRulez: News from LabRulezGCMS Library - Week 3, 2025
Our Library never stops expanding. What are the most recent contributions to LabRulezGCMS Library in the week of 13th January 2025? Check out new documents from the field of the gas phase, especially GC and GC/MS techniques!
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👉 Need info about different analytical techniques? Peek into LabRulezLCMS or LabRulezICPMS libraries.
This week we bring you applications and other documents by Agilent Technologies, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Shimadzu!
1. Thermo Fisher Scientific: HERAtech Laboratories satisfies growing water-analysis demand and reduces costs using workflow automation
- Case study
- Full PDF for download
“Automation is fundamental because thirteen analysts are not enough to cope with our increase in samples. The automated approach we use allows for method consolidation with the analysis of PAHs and pesticides in a single GC run. Additionally, the possibility to perform sample extraction automatically, followed by online GC-MS/MS analysis, offers a significant reduction of labor spent and a significant reduction in solvent consumption.”
Dr. Paolo Morelli, Laboratory Manager, HERAtech S.r.l., Sasso Marconi (BO), Italy
“It’s necessary to evaluate every possible marginal gain on every single process in the workflow to remove any bottlenecks. The bottleneck that Thermo Fisher Scientific has helped us solve is huge for sample preparation for pesticides and in particular for PAHs by eliminating manual SPE.”
Dr. Paolo Morelli, Laboratory Manager, HERAtech S.r.l., Sasso Marconi (BO), Italy
Analytical system used at HERAtech for automated determination of pesticides and PAHs in water samples
- TriPlus RSH SMART autosampler
- Thermo Scientific™ TRACE ™ 1610 Series gas chromatograph with Thermo Scientific™ iConnect™ Programmable Temperature Vaporizing (PTV) injector module for large-volume injection
- Thermo Scientific™ TSQ™ 9610 triple quadrupole mass spectrometer
“The key aspect of this automated solution is an analytical system capable of carrying out automatically, in a fully unattended way, all the extraction phases of the LLE protocol using microvolumes.”
Dr. Paolo Morelli, Laboratory Manager, HERAtech S.r.l., Sasso Marconi (BO), Italy
“We made significant investments focused on automation in terms of instruments that allow us to analyze more analytes in one run. In particular, we aimed to consolidate different methods into a single method and provide as many analytical measurements as possible with a single machine. Our goal was simultaneous analysis of 70 analytes including pesticides and PAHs, with quantification limits between 0.0005 μg/L (0.5 ng/L) and 0.02 μg/L.”
Dr. Paolo Morelli, Laboratory Manager, HERAtech S.r.l., Sasso Marconi (BO), Italy
“Only two solvents are necessary to perform automated DLLME, and the much lower volumes offer significant cost savings. The sample volume required is much lower, reducing logistic costs of transportation and storage.”
Dr. Paolo Morelli, Laboratory Manager, HERAtech S.r.l., Sasso Marconi (BO), Italy
2. Agilent Technologies/ASMS: A Triple Quadrupole GC/MS MRM Database for Forensic and Toxicological Workflows
- Poster
- Full PDF for download
Systematic toxicological analysis in forensic investigation demands continuous adaptability to an ever-evolving toxicant landscape.
The three main challenges are:
- low concentrations of the toxicants
- an ever-growing number of analytes to be monitored and quantitated
- the limitations in obtaining analytical standards for every chemical.
For the volatile compounds, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is the method of choice when analyzing forensic drugs and toxicants [1, 2]. GC/MS forensic toxicological workflow greatly benefits from selectivity and sensitivity of multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) approach enabled with triple quadrupole GC/MS (GC/TQ).
The aim of this work was to develop an MRM database to help toxicological researchers build screening and quantitation methods simplifying method development.
The database of MRM transitions for relevant toxicants was established and successfully applied to creating GC/TQ methods for analyzing real-world authentic samples with greater sensitivity and confidence than the conventional GC/MS approach. The database will be available for download starting July 2024.
3. Shimadzu: GC/GC-MS Glass Insert/Liner Selection Guide
In a gas chromatograph, the sample is injected into the column via the injection unit. A glass insert / liner is used to vaporize the sample more efficiently, and to inject the vaporized sample into the column with no unnecessary dispersion. Additionally, using a glass insert reduces the extent to which contaminants such as high boiling point compounds from the sample contaminate the injection unit. Accordingly, selecting a glass insert appropriate for the objective heightens the accuracy of analysis and leads to more reliable results.
When selecting a glass insert, various selection standards are used depending on the application. For example, the following cases can be cited as selection standards for glass inserts.
- What type of injection unit is used? What sample injection method is used during analysis?
- Is the glass insert filled with wool (glass wool)? What shape is the glass insert?
- What are the dimensions of the glass insert?
- Is surface treatment of the glass insert necessary?
Glass inserts with a variety of specifications are commercially available to suit these varied selection criteria, so selecting a glass insert can be daunting.
This selection guide describes how to select an appropriate glass insert for the objective/application as well as points to consider in accordance with elements of the glass insert configuration. Additionally, this guide introduces glass inserts appropriate for your Shimadzu GC system.
