Chromatography Forum

Hi all.

Just a simple question about proper settings for a Shimadzu QP2010 Ultra when not in use. We only use the instrument once every few days at the moment. It is left running at all times and I don't use the shutdown procedure unless the instrument will be inactive for a week or more. What are appropriate settings for leaving the instrument in a "ready to go" state? So far I am leaving it at the same initial temperatures and pressures used in our analysis method but I am not sure how appropriate these are over the long term.

Column oven: 50 C
Injector: 250 C
Ion source: 200 C
Interface: 250 C
Carrier gas pressure: 53.5 kPa
Total flow: 10 ml - split
Column flow: 1 ml
Purge flow: 3 ml

Is it better to lower the injector and interface temperatures or is this unnecessary?

Thanks for any assistance.

Hi, from my point of view and my using conditions are :

Injector : 90° C
Column :90°C
Transfer line and ion source :150°C
Column flow : 0,5 ml/min (I'm using on -column)
Split ratio : 3:1 (also applied in on-column conditions by NOT using direct mode injection)
Purge : 3 ml/min.
You need to avoid any water condensation during standby into the mass detector but high oven and source temperetures are unnecessaires.

During the days of standby anyway all impurity of carrier are transferred into the column in some part. Is then important to setup a cleaning method with high injector, oven, transfer line and source temperatures. Also the column speed flow can be increased up to 1.5-2.0 ml/min.
This method must be run, without sample injection, after standby and before the first analytical run.

Robertino Barcarolo, Italy