Ultra Fast Triple Quadrupole GC/MS and Expanded LC-MS/MS

Shimadzu Corporation has introduced the GCMS-TQ8030 ultra fast triple quadrupole gas chromatograph mass spectrometer. Shimadzu has also released the LCMS-8040 and LCMS-8080 to expand its LC-MS/MS product portfolio. By launching all three products at ASMS (American Society for Mass Spectrometry) 2012, Shimadzu expands its mass spectrometry product line, called UFMS (Ultra Fast Mass Spectrometry) series, featuring high sensitivity, high data quality and fast cycle times. Shimadzu presented all of these products at ASMS in Vancouver, Canada.

"The newly-developed GCMS-TQ8030 features powerful capability in terms of both high sensitivity and ultrafast performance, enabling trace analysis at the ppt (parts per trillion) level," said Hiroto Itoi, General Manager of Mass Spectrometry Business Unit, Life Science Business Department of Analytical & Measuring Instruments Division. In such areas as food and water safety, regulatory bodies typically set the concentration level of residual pesticides at below 10 ppb unless there is any toxicology result. These analyses must be done in complex matrices and the number of target components has been increasing year by year. "The GCMS-TQ8030 is designed to fulfill these needs," said Hiroto Itoi.

With the LCMS-8040 and LCMS-8080, Shimadzu's LC-MS/MS product portfolio now includes middle-range and high-end models. With novel technologies designed for trace quantitative works in complex matrices, the LCMS-8080 provides competitive sensitivity. This high-end model achieves a thirty-fold increase in sensitivity over the LCMS-8030 (released September 2010). Furthermore, the LCMS-8040 boosts the sensitivity five times higher than the LCMS-8030 while maintaining its ultrafast performance. With this combination of speed and sensitivity, the LCMS-8040 will help scientists to conduct "Qual/Quan" analysis and cover a wide range of applications such as food safety, environmental, pharmaceutical, forensic, clinical, etc.

Shimadzu workstation software for the new instruments: GCMS solution Ver. 4.0, LabSolutions LCMS Ver. 5.53 (LCMS-8040) and LabSolutions LCMS Ver. 5.5 (LCMS-8080), provide intuitive and unified operation flow and new functionalities for more efficient data processing. Analyses using both GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS for the same sample, such as multi-target quantitative analysis in food safety and forensic, the unified graphical user interface of software for the UFMS series minimizes time to learn the operation for both instruments.

"Shimadzu Corporation is dedicated to provide solutions for various analytical challenges in healthcare and environmental concerns," said Teruhisa Ueda, Director and General Manager of Shimadzu Analytical & Measuring Instruments Division. "With the launch of these three triple quadrupole mass spectrometers, Shimadzu will accelerate our contribution to cutting-edge researches in healthcare and environmental concerns".

GCMS-TQ8030's features
• Achieves high sensitivity and excellent selectivity, using the combination of UF technologies used for GCMS-QP2010 Ultra and LCMS-8030. It results in ten times higher sensitivity than the existing single-quadrupole GC-MS in the analysis of complex matrices.
• Delivers 600 MRM transitions per second, using the combination of Shimadzu's unique UFsweeper™ technology and new electronics. High-sensitivity analysis is possible even at high scanning rate. Fast Scan/MRM measurement supporting both scan data and MRM data in single run, is also available, enabling quantitative analysis with the confirmation of target compounds.
• Simple method transfer form single quadrupole GC/MS to GC/MS/MS.

LCMS-8040's features
• Achieves five times higher sensitivity compared to the LCMS-8030 by re-engineering ion optics and collision cell technology, which results in higher ion transmission and collision induced dissociation efficiency.
• Designed to be the ideal "Qual/Quan" platform which provides significantly higher sensitivity while maintaining the speed of measurement first implemented to the LCMS-8030. It achieved ultrafast MRM transition of the maximum 555 MRMs per second.
• Featuring the world's fastest polarity switching at 15 msec and scanning rate of 15,000 u/sec.

LCMS-8080's features
• Achieves low femtogram to attogram range detection limit for a variety of compounds with Shimadzu's new ion source and interface technologies, which effectively reduce chemical background from complex matrices.
• Delivers outstanding performance with UHPLC and offering excellent stability and reliability in data acquisition, even when rapidly switching the ionization polarity.
• Provides outstanding ruggedness when measuring target compounds in complex matrices. It delivers excellent data quality for a long time and can minimize the instrument down time.