The target analytes in liquid chromatography often elute in a very
small time slot. The matrix-related substances that elute later are of
no interest to the analyst, but put a strain on the mass spectrometer.
Normally this has to be awaited, as well as the reconditioning of the
column.
With the CHRONECT Workstation Multiplexing a solution for
better utilization of LC-MS systems was developed. It allows up to four
LC columns and pumps to be installed in parallel. By intelligent valve
switching, only the target analytes are transferred to the mass
spectrometer. The rest of the matrix does not load the mass
spectrometer. There is also no loss of time for reconditioning, since
the next measurement can already be started with another column. By
using up to four HPLC channels in parallel, the desired sections of four
samples can be transferred to the LC-MS in a time-interleaved manner
and analyzed in close succession. Thus, the sample throughput of LC-MS
systems can be increased up to fourfold.
The basis is a CHRONECT
Robotic Autosampler and the HPLC pump SPH1299 from Spark. The entire
control and intelligent time management is handled by the CHRONOS
software platform.