Advanced triple quadrupole technology for improved performance and ease of use

In all mass spectrometry applications, increased resolution, mass accuracy, and speed are sought. While the necessary resolution and sensitivity can be achieved by pushing an older instrument to its limits, the consequences of doing so are often more challenging method development and sample analysis and more frequent maintenance resulting from larger injection volumes, explains Patrick Bennett, marketing director for pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals at Thermo Fisher Scientific (TFS).

Two new instruments from TFS address the need for increased sensitivity for small-molecule analysis. “The TSQ Endura triple-stage quadrupole mass spectrometer has a new ion source design and interface and an ion beam blocker that prevents neutral ions from contaminating components, thus improving robustness and dramatically increasing uptime, making the system ideal for workhorse applications requiring trace-level quantitation,” Bennett observes.

The TSQ Quantiva triple-stage quadrupole mass spectrometer has the same new source and simplified maintenance design as the TSQ Endura, plus active ion management (AIM) to optimize ion creation and transmission from the source to the detector, which provides sensitivity to the attogram level. According to Bennett, the increased scanning speed of the new design also makes it possible to screen several hundreds of compounds in a single analysis.

TFS also made the user interface for each system simple with click-and-drag operations, and included new software with templates for rapid method development and data acquisition, programs designed to assist molecule identification, and mass spectral databases for the identification and structural elucidation of unknowns. “Our goal was not only to develop highly sophisticated systems that provide the resolution, speed, and mass accuracy needed for various pharmaceutical industry analyses, but also to make them easy to use by both those with extensive training and those that are new to mass spectrometry,” states Bennett. increasing numbers of complex and innovative products and suppliers  and discuss ways the pharmaceutical industry can collaborate to assure the delivery of high-quality medicines in an ever-increasing complex and global marketplace.