Chromatography Forum

I'm trying to figure out which company (Agilent,Thermo,Varian,etc...) has the latest and greatest LC/MS/MS for environmental analysis such as USDA/FSIS pesticides, herbs, and new stuff like PFOA. I'm trying to start my own very very small lab. Thanks for any advice.

I've done PFOA on a Micromass Quattro (~8 years old) in 10% ethanol down to 10-50ppb in solution.

Currently I am analyzing ~10 pesticides on a ABI Sciex 4000 (Pretty new) at 0.1 ppb in solution (aqueous).

The instrument is only as good as your analyst. You're best off to get the most instrument you can afford, as LODs will usually only get pushed lower.

Just my advice/opinion

I'm guessing the best way would be to purchase separate components like a Waters HPLC 1525 binary gradient pump, Leap Mini Pal autosampler, and a Micromass Quattro Ion Trap detector including their electrospray transfer system and data system. Kind of like going to Goodyear for your tires instead of Ford. Thanks again. Buddy Smith.

Are now (and have been for a while) owned by Waters, they no longer sell under the Micromass brand. So it would be a Waters Quattro which is a triple Quad. You might want to consider a Quad/TOF hybrid such as the QTOF. The Waters AutoSpec is what they normally recommend for environmental work, Dioxin analysis and the like. Its a sector instrument though.

I think you should definitely consider the Varian 500 LC-MS. It's their ion trap model. They also have a new triple quadrupole 320 LC-MS for which the mass spectrometer can also be interfaced to a GC for added capability/flexibility.

I'm sure if you contact Varian, they would be happy to run some samples for you and report estimated limits of detection.

-Aaron

One of the most well known instruments manufacturers in LC-MS/MS is Applied Biosystems. I'm sure you could get them to run your samples to test their instruments. I'm sure you can get some info from their website

http://www.appliedbiosystems.com/

A triple quadrupole MS could be the most useful for a testing lab. Currently the most popular brand are from ABI and Waters. I have seen customers happy with both brands. You may choose one from the two by comparing the price and the local support. Agilent also introduced triple quad MSD last year. It was said the sensitivity is better and the price is lower than others. Not sure if this is proven. Other chemists in this forum may have more information.

If you're looking for a triple quadrupole system, then you should also consider Varian. They have a new 320 MS that is a triple quad, very sensitive. Just check out the sensitivity specs they are quoting.

Even when our lab compares our older Varian 2000 ion trap mass spectrometer with our newer Agilent 5975, there is a huge sensitivity advantage for the Varian, often 2-3 orders of magnitude more sensitive. One analyte in particular I detected today at 600 femtograms using the Varian, and the limit of detection with the Agilent is 800 picograms. We have found this difference for not just this one analyte, but many of the chemicals we test for. Varian customer service is also really great. With Agilent, they only seem to want to deal with you if you own a lot of their instruments.

In terms of sensitivity the API 5000 should be the most sensitive. The Agilent one has the sensitivity of an API 4000 but much less expensive. Waters triple quadrupoles are also very good. Thermo ones have the additional advantage of higher mass accuracy but for a premium... I saw the varian one in ASMS last year, interesting design and very small footprint, I am not sure about it's sensitivity though...