The 861 Advanced Compact IC will be part of a centre display at the Pittsburgh Conference next week

The 861 Advanced Compact IC represents a further extension to the range of compact Metrohm IC instruments. Since their introduction in 1999, this new instrument class has become firmly established.

Extremely compact design, high sensitivity, low detection limits, comprehensive automation possibilities – all combined with very easy handling – form the basis for the outstanding performance and success of these IC systems. In addition, excellent price-performance ratio and low running costs have opened up completely new application areas for ion chromatography.

An innovative step forward in the compact instruments sector: Metrohm introduces the 861 Advanced Compact IC with sequential suppression. With values below 1 µS/cm after suppression, the background conductivity approaches the theoretical limit of 0.05 µS/cm. When running anions, low background conductivity directly relates to very low detection limits, which means the compact ion chromatograph now covers the single-figure ppb range.

With the 861 Advanced Compact IC you are experiencing a new type of chromatography: larger peak areas, no injection peak, no carbonate peak, and baseline stability better than anything you have seen up until now.

The 861 Advanced Compact IC combines the two most effective suppression techniques sequentially into a single instrument: namely, the second generation of the Metrohm Suppressor Module «MSM II» for chemical suppression, which coincides with a completely new development – «MCS», the 853 Metrohm CO₂ Suppressor. This combination guarantees an accurate and reproducible analysis while representing an entirely new type of ion chromatography.

The removal of CO₂ keeps the carbonate equilibrium from affecting the peak areas: With sample concentration and sample volume being the same, up to 50% larger peak areas and markedly lower detection limits are obtained.

No carbonate peak – this means no bothersome interferences during the quantification of certain analyte anions. For example, on many polystyrene / divinylbenzene columns, chloride and carbonate coelute. The use of the CO₂ suppressor eliminates this problem. The virtual absence of an injection peak improves the determination of rapidly eluting anions such as fluoride. Although excellent separation between the injection peak and fluoride peak is achieved on polyalcohol columns, the use of the CO₂ suppressor improves the detection limit even further. As the injection peak is negligibly small, considerably larger sample volumes can be injected.