Low-flow liquid chromatography ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry platform

DTU Sustain is working with environmental forensics and metabolomic investigations to study the fate and occurrence of chemicals and small molecules dispersed into the environment. To be able to make these investigations, DTU wants to procure a low-flow liquid chromatography ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry platform, capable of characterizing small molecules with collisional dissociation and laser-based ultraviolet-photodissociation (UVPD) for multi-stage molecular fragmentation (MSn) in liquid chromatography time scale. The mass spectrometer platform must have two independent mass detectors, and capable of resolving very complex molecular mixtures to improve unknown chemical characterization with fine isotope detection at one million in mass resolution (at mass-to-charge 200) or higher. The liquid chromatography system must be able to make chromatographic separations of complex mixtures at low-flow conditions (10-100 nano-liters per minute) and seamlessly integrated with nanoelectrospray ionization and controlled, jointly with themass spectrometer, within the same software environment. In addition, the combined system must have; • Two atmospheric pressure ionisation interfaces; heated electrospray ionisation (HESI) and nano-spray ionisation (NSI). • A nanoflow UHPLC (ultra-high performance liquid chromatography) instrument that can be operated with the ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometer, and the combined UHPLCHRMS system is operated within the same software environment. • A nanoflow UHPLC instrument capable of operating from 1 nanoliter per minute to 100 microliter per minute in flow rate, and at backpressures up to 1500 bar. • A nanoflow UHPLC instrument that consist of a binary high-pressure gradient pump, splitloop autosampler, an active nanoflow control unit and onboard user interface for immediate operation. • A UHPLC instrument capable of maintaining sample temperature control within 4-40 oC and holding at least 216 sample vials at the same time. • The UHPLC sampler must support a sample capacity of four sample racks and well plates (96 and 384, deep and shallow) without the need for external devices such as plate feeder. • The user interface must provide guided workflow exchange and maintenance procedures. • The mass spectrometer (MS) must be capable of operating at one million or higher in mass resolution at mass-to-charge (m/z) 200 to resolve complex environmental matrices. • A mass spectrometer capable of performing higher-energy collisional dissiciation and ultraviolet photodissociation for multi-stage MSn-fragmentation in liquid chromatography time scale. • A mass spectrometer capable of fragment ion detection in either ion trap or high-resolution analyzer • A mass spectrometer capable of isolating precursor ions with a quadrupole filter with 0.7 FWHM resolution for 50<m/z<1000. • A mass spectrometer that can perform automated iterative data-dependent acquisition in an integrated software solution. • A mass spectrometer that can perform data-dependent acquisition and data-independent acquisition. • A mass spectrometer with three mass analyzers build on quadrupole, linear ion trap, and Orbitrap technology. • A mass spectrometer with two independent mass detectors - one of them based linear ion trap technology - and both detectors must be capable of operating in parallel with each other. • A mass spectrometer with a removable ion sweep cone. • The mass spectrometer must be capable of switching polarities within 25 mili seconds • The mass spectrometer must be able to perform up to 10 stages of data-dependent fragmentations (MSn). • A mass spectrometer with normalized collision energy capability to automatically compensate for the mass dependent energy deposition and provide instrument-to-instrument fragmentation reproducibility. • A mass spectrometer with a data-dependent decision tree logic to automatic determine optimal fragmentation technique and analyzer during the LC run. • The high resolution mass analyzer must at least have an intra-spectrum dynamic range of 5000. • An ultraviolet photodissociation technology using a 213 nm laser architecture that is fully integrated in the mass spectrometer.