Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separation isolates analytes. Qualitative analysis identifies analytes, while quantitative analysis determines the numerical amount or concentration.
Agilent Technologies, Inc. is a global company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for laboratories. Agilent was established in 1999 as a spin-off from Hewlett-Packard. The resulting IPO of Agilent stock was the largest in the history of Silicon Valley at the time. From 1999 to 2014, the company produced optics, semiconductors, EDA software and test and measurement equipment for electronics; that division was spun off to form Keysight. Since then, the company has continued to expand into pharmaceutical, diagnostics & clinical, and academia & government (research) markets.
Tandem mass spectrometry, also known as MS/MS or MS2, is a technique in instrumental analysis where two or more stages of analysis using one or more mass analyzer are performed with an additional reaction step in between these analyses to increase their abilities to analyse chemical samples. A common use of tandem MS is the analysis of biomolecules, such as proteins and peptides.
Total organic carbon (TOC) is an analytical parameter representing the concentration of organic carbon in a sample. TOC determinations are made in a variety of application areas. For example, TOC may be used as a non-specific indicator of water quality, or TOC of source rock may be used as one factor in evaluating a petroleum play. For marine surface sediments average TOC content is 0.5% in the deep ocean, and 2% along the eastern margins.
The AutoAnalyzer is an automated analyzer using a flow technique called continuous flow analysis (CFA), or more correctly segmented flow analysis (SFA) first made by the Technicon Corporation. The instrument was invented in 1957 by Leonard Skeggs, PhD and commercialized by Jack Whitehead's Technicon Corporation. The first applications were for clinical analysis, but methods for industrial and environmental analysis soon followed. The design is based on segmenting a continuously flowing stream with air bubbles.
Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFAAS), also known as electrothermal atomic absorption spectroscopy (ETAAS), is a type of spectrometry that uses a graphite-coated furnace to vaporize the sample. Briefly, the technique is based on the fact that free atoms will absorb light at frequencies or wavelengths characteristic of the element of interest. Within certain limits, the amount of light absorbed can be linearly correlated to the concentration of analyte present. Free atoms of most elements can be produced from samples by the application of high temperatures. In GFAAS, samples are deposited in a small graphite or pyrolytic carbon coated graphite tube, which can then be heated to vaporize and atomize the analyte. The atoms absorb ultraviolet or visible light and make transitions to higher electronic energy levels. Applying the Beer-Lambert law directly in AA spectroscopy is difficult due to variations in the atomization efficiency from the sample matrix, and nonuniformity of concentration and path length of analyte atoms. Concentration measurements are usually determined from a working curve after calibrating the instrument with standards of known concentration. The main advantages of the graphite furnace comparing to aspiration atomic absorption are the following:
Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) It is a method of conducting analytical research that separates and identifies ionized molecules present in the gas phase based on the mobility of the molecules in a carrier buffer gas. Even though it is used extensively for military or security objectives, such as detecting drugs and explosives, the technology also has many applications in laboratory analysis, including studying small and big biomolecules. IMS instruments are extremely sensitive stand-alone devices, but are often coupled with mass spectrometry, gas chromatography or high-performance liquid chromatography in order to achieve a multi-dimensional separation. They come in various sizes, ranging from a few millimeters to several meters depending on the specific application, and are capable of operating under a broad range of conditions. IMS instruments such as microscale high-field asymmetric-waveform ion mobility spectrometry can be palm-portable for use in a range of applications including volatile organic compound (VOC) monitoring, biological sample analysis, medical diagnosis and food quality monitoring. Systems operated at higher pressure are often accompanied by elevated temperature, while lower pressure systems (1–20 hPa) do not require heating.
Combustion analysis is a method used in both organic chemistry and analytical chemistry to determine the elemental composition of a pure organic compound by combusting the sample under conditions where the resulting combustion products can be quantitatively analyzed. Once the number of moles of each combustion product has been determined the empirical formula or a partial empirical formula of the original compound can be calculated.
Isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) is a specialization of mass spectrometry, in which mass spectrometric methods are used to measure the relative abundance of isotopes in a given sample.
Endress+Hauser is a Swiss-based globally operating process and laboratory instrumentation and automation supplier. The family company achieved net sales of approximately 2.9 billion euros in 2021 with a total workforce of more than 15,000.
Consolidated Engineering Corporation was a chemical instrument manufacturer from 1937 to 1960 when it became a subsidiary of Bell and Howell Corp.
Spark ionization is a method used to produce gas phase ions from a solid sample. The prepared solid sample is vaporized and partially ionized by an intermittent discharge or spark. This technique is primarily used in the field of mass spectrometry. When incorporated with a mass spectrometer the complete instrument is referred to as a spark ionization mass spectrometer or as a spark source mass spectrometer (SSMS).
Pittcon Editors’ Awards honoured the best new products on show at the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, or Pittcon, for 20 years from 1996 having been established by Dr Gordon Wilkinson, managing editor of Analytical Instrument Industry Report. On 8 March 2015, the event returned to the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans and this was the last occasion when the awards were presented.
Xylem Inc. is a large American water technology provider, in public utility, residential, commercial, agricultural and industrial settings. The company does business in more than 150 countries. Launched in 2011 as the spinoff of the water-related businesses of ITT Corporation, Xylem is headquartered in Washington, DC, with 2018 revenues of $5.2 billion and 17,000 employees worldwide.
Mettler Toledo is a multinational manufacturer of scales and analytical instruments. It is the largest provider of weighing instruments for use in laboratory, industrial, and food retailing applications. The company also provides various analytical instruments, process analytics instruments, and end-of-line inspection systems. The company operates worldwide with 70% of net sales, derived in equal parts, from Europe and from the Americas. Asian business is included in the remaining 30%. Mettler Toledo is headquartered in Switzerland and incorporated in the United States.
Aerosol mass spectrometry is the application of mass spectrometry to the analysis of the composition of aerosol particles. Aerosol particles are defined as solid and liquid particles suspended in a gas (air), with size range of 3 nm to 100 μm in diameter and are produced from natural and anthropogenic sources, through a variety of different processes that include wind-blown suspension and combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. Analysis of these particles is important owing to their major impacts on global climate change, visibility, regional air pollution and human health. Aerosols are very complex in structure, can contain thousands of different chemical compounds within a single particle, and need to be analysed for both size and chemical composition, in real-time or off-line applications.
Max Davis Liston is an American pioneer in the development of instruments for infrared spectrophotometry and non-dispersive infrared analysis. Two of his innovations, the breaker-type direct-coupled amplifier and the vacuum thermocouple, were essential to the development of infrared spectrometry technology. Among others, Liston has developed instruments for capnometry, the measurement of carbon dioxide in respiratory gases, used to monitor patients. He also developed instruments to measure smog and car exhaust emissions, essential to attempts to improve Los Angeles air quality in the 1950s.
Robert Emmet Finnigan was an American pioneer in the development of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry equipment (GC/MS). Finnigan founded the Scientific Instruments Division of Electronic Associates, Inc., producing the first commercial quadrupole mass spectrometer in 1964. He then formed Finnigan Instruments Corporation to combine a computer system with a quadrupole mass spectrometer and gas chromatograph. Finnigan's GC/MS/computer systems are used to detect and identify trace organic compounds, making them important instruments for the monitoring and protection of the environment. They were adopted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a standard instrument for monitoring water quality and were fundamental to the work of the EPA.
Robert J. Warren was the president emeritus of LECO Corporation, a pioneer in the development of carbon determination instrumentation for use in the iron and steel industry, and other types of analytic instrumentation for use in organic and metallographic analysis and separation science. He was the recipient of the 2017 Pittcon Heritage Award for his contribution to scientific instrumentation.
SCIEX is a manufacturer of mass spectrometry instrumentation used in biomedical and environmental applications. Originally started by scientists from the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, it is now part of Danaher Corporation with the SCIExe R&D division still located in Toronto, Canada.
