| Abstract Title: | Aspects of Ion Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry & Recent Advances |
| Presenter Name: | Dr Detlef Jensen |
| Company/Organisation: | Thermo Fisher Scientific |
| Country: | Germany |
Abstract Information :
Ion Chromatography (IC) is widely used to analyze ionic or easily ionizable components in a variety of different matrices. Initially developed to facilitate the determination of major anions and cations in aqueous samples, its scope expanded over the years to the analysis of more demanding samples as well as to lower analyte concentrations.
Today the analytical tasks range from the determination of trace levels of oxohalides (e.g., bromate, chlorate and perchlorate) in drinking water and food, to the determination of amines and in scrubber solutions, or biogenic amines in food. The determination of polar pesticides and their metabolites in food and water, as well as the determination of highly polar components in metabolomics, are other aspects of modern challenges for IC.
Driven by such analytical tasks, it is evident that there is a need for higher analytical selectivity, specificity, and sensitivity. Similar to the development in conventional HPLC one focus is on the combination of IC with Mass Spectrometry (MS) to develop new analytical assays. The unique chromatographic selectivity of IC separations would add to the specificity of MS-detection.
In contrast to RPLC, with highly volatile organic solvents as eluents, IC uses aqueous solutions of mineral acids and bases as the mobile phase. Such mobile phases would be incompatible with the MS equipment. In this presentation, we describe the analytical setup using continuously regenerated desalting devices to overcome this obstacle. We will focus on the question of desolvation of aqueous eluents, on current application challenges, advanced chromatographic efficiency of new 4 µm polymeric stationary phases, as well as on the automation of the analytical workflow including the in situ generation of eluents and regenerants during the run.
