Mercury Speciation in Biological Tissue and Sediments by GC / ICP-MS Using the NexION 350

20 May 2015

The focus of this application note is to examine the instrumental conditions and parameters necessary for the coupling of a Clarus® GC to a NexION® ICP-MS system with a GC transfer line and its application towards the speciation of mercury in biological tissues and sediments.

NexION 350 ICP-MS Spectrometers

PerkinElmer

When your instrument is more efficient and productive, so too are your scientists and your lab. And nothing puts the flow in your workflow better than the NexION® 350 ICP-MS. With a data acquisition speed 10 times faster than any other ICP-MS on the market, the new NexION 350 ICP-MS opens up a whole new world of efficiency and opportunity, allowing you to measure more in less time, and accurately characterize nanoparticles. In addition to the exceptional application flexibility afforded by its speed, the instrument also delivers superior uptime and productivity through a variety of unique features engineered to enhance signal stability: Triple Cone Interface produces the industry’s most tightly focused ion beam and prevents sample deposition on internal components. Quadrupole Ion Deflector turns positively charged ions 90° into the Universal Cell and filters off neutrals. Analyzing Quadrupole made of a unique steel alloy for negligible thermal expansion for unparalleled stability. No extraction lenses to clean for minimized maintenance.

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Clarus 680 GC

PerkinElmer

The Clarus® 680 GC is designed for fast-paced, high-volume laboratories that require fast analytical cycle times. It maximizes throughput with the fastest injection-to-injection time of any conventional gas chromatograph. The Clarus 680 GC incorporates many other PerkinElmer innovations that provide unprecedented operational simplicity and outstanding flexibility while removing the barriers to productivity that can arise with more demanding samples and applications. The fastest temperature programmable inlets available combined with programmable pneumatic control (PPC) provides simple and straightforward solutions to complex analyses such as analysis for methanol in crude oil or determination of pesticides in food. Its near-ambient performances make the Clarus 680 GC the instrument of choice for the separation of light volatile components or when Large Volume Injection is required to run high-sensitivity GC/MS applications. Complete instrument control is available through TotalChrom and TurboMass as well as Waters® Empower™ 2 and Agilent® EZChrom Elite™ drivers. Features/Benefits Patented high-performance oven - the unique oven design of the Clarus 680 GC provides the fastest available heat-up and cool-down rate, enabling shorter injection-to-injection and analytical cycle times, maximizing your sample throughput and achieve maximum return on your investment •  Its twin-walled oven design with concentric air exhaust* allows the user to achieve greater separation at near-ambient temperatures without the use of special coolants, especially important for the analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). •  Fast oven heat-up allows faster chromatography, particularly useful when speeding up the elution of late eluting compounds. •  Fastest available cool-down rate is delivered using forced convection air. This greatly reduces non-productive time between runs. •  Universal Programmable Split-Splitless (PSS) and Programmable On-Column (POC) injectors design enables Large Volume Injection of volatile solvents and cold on-column injections without the use of expensive cooling agents •  Novel Swafer™ micro-flow technology dramatically simplifies complex tasks helping to make the Clarus 680 GC easily used by operators at all skill levels •  Complete instrument control is available through TotalChrom™, TurboMass™ as well as Waters® Empower™ 2 and Agilent® EZChrom Elite™ drivers.

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Gas ChromatographyGas chromatography (GC) is an analytical technique used to separate and quantitate mixtures of small and volatile compounds. Gas chromatographs or GC systems include components such as GC columns, detectors, pumps and autosamplers. Choose from packed or capillary GC columns, flame ionization (FID), photoionization (PID) electron capture detectors and selective or non-selective detectors. Find the best gas chromatographs in our peer-reviewed product directory: compare products, check customer reviews and receive pricing direct from manufacturers.Atomic Absorption / Emission SpectroscopyAtomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and atomic emission spectroscopy (AES) — also called optical emission spectroscopy (OES) — are used to detect the elemental constituents in samples. Both techniques involve the atomization of a sample. Atomic absorption spectrometers may use a flame or furnace to create an atomic vapor of the sample before irradiation with spectral light. Optical emission spectrometers may use a flame, inductively coupled plasma (ICP), microwave plasma (MP) or spark arcs to atomize and excite the sample. At higher excitation energies, electrons can be emitted instead of photons, which can be useful for samples that can’t be atomized and for surface analysis. Explore electron spectroscopy equipment such as Auger spectrometers and photoelectron spectrometers for surface elemental analysis of samples. Find the best atomic absorption, photoelectron and optical emission spectrometers in our peer-reviewed product directory: compare products, check customer reviews and receive pricing direct from manufacturers.Environmental AnalysisEnvironmental analysis describes a variety of tests that determine the effect of chemicals, processes and particulates such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have on the environment.Mercury