This year’s 59th American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) meeting was held in Denver, Colorado, on June 4–9. There were 169 exhibitors, which was more than the previous two years, but still down from the 2007 peak of 183 exhibitors. Attendance this year increased 6.3% to 6,477 over last year’s show, which was held in Salt Lake City, Utah (see IBO 6/15/10). Every year seems to bring another wave of instrument introductions that offer far better performance than the previous year’s introductions, and this year was no exception. However, the theme of this year’s show might be best described as major vendors entering new segments of the market.

On the heels of its entry into the single quadrupole LC/MS market last year, PerkinElmer introduced the AxION 2 TOF LC/MS, which is based on the platform technology it acquired through its purchase of Analytica of Branford a couple of years ago (see IBO 5/15/09). The AxION 2 offers specifications on par with other LC-TOF instruments and delivers five orders of magnitude dynamic range, which is as good as existing systems. The new system, which ranges in price from $200,000 to $300,000 with an HPLC included, will be primarily targeted at food, environmental and pharmaceutical quality control laboratories. Introduced alongside the new system were the Field-Free AxION DSA direct-injection atmospheric-pressure chemical-ionization (APCI) source and plug-in AxION Separation Probes. The AxION DSA (Direct Sample Analysis) is the first such direct-injection APCI source on the market. The enclosed AxION DSA interfaces with an XYZ arm and works with proprietary consumables for sample loading. PerkinElmer is likely to expand its product offerings around the DSA in the near future. Also introduced were eDoor software for a network environment and Solo Target Analysis software for reviewing results. Both products emphasize ease of use.

Agilent had a host of product introductions at this year’s show, which were highlighted by its creation of a whole new market subsegment with the introduction of the 7200 Q-TOF GC/MS. Although several vendors offer interfaces to adapt LC-oriented Q-TOF instruments for use with GCs, the 7200 is the first purpose-built Q-TOF for GC/MS applications with electron ionization, and positive and negative chemical ionization sources. Agilent was able to leverage existing components from other systems to create the 7200, including the quadrupole analyzer and collision cell from its 7000B triple quadrupole GC/MS. While it is very likely that Agilent will introduce a GC-TOF in the near future as well, the company expects strong demand for the 7200 from early adopters in the metabolomics, food, environmental and forensics markets, many of whom it worked with to develop the system. Pricing for the 7200 will range from $300,000 to $350,000 depending on configuration.

Agilent also introduced two other all-new systems at the show. The new top-end 6550 Q-TOF LC/MS makes use of Agilent’s iFunnel front-end ion-focusing and -filtering technology first employed on its triple quadrupole systems last year for a tenfold jump in sensitivity. Added to that is an increase in scanning speed to 50 spectra/second. In the triple quadrupole LC/MS area, Agilent introduced the 6420 LC/MS, which replaces the 6410 as the entry-level unit and adds the triggered multiple reaction monitoring functionality from higher-end models as well as faster polarity switching. Agilent has also designed the 6420 to be field upgradable to the 6430 and 6460 models, which have improved sensitivity. Agilent also announced improvements to its 6100B single quadrupole LC/MS series, including faster polarity switching and scanning speeds for the 6120B, as well as JetStream compatibility for the 6130B. The price is the same as the previous model.

Although Shimadzu introduced its new LCMS-8030 triple quadrupole system earlier this year at Pittcon (see IBO 3/31/11), this was its first showing at ASMS and, more significantly, marks Shimadzu’s entrance into the triple quadrupole LC/MS market. Shimadzu claims the LCMS-8030 is the fastest-scanning triple quadrupole LC/MS on the market at 15,000 amu/second. Shimadzu also introduced the Nexera MP Autosampler, also identified as the SIL-30ACMP, which is designed to work with ultra-fast LCs and can handle up to six microplates at a time, with a carryover of less than 0.0015% and an injection time of seven seconds.

Bruker, which introduced a higher-performance version of its maXis Q-TOF LC/MS with the 4G at Pittcon, rolled out its maXis Impact Q-TOF LC/MS at ASMS. The Impact is designed as a more economical and compact choice with a $380,000 list price. It offers the same 40,000 FWHM full-scan resolution and 1 ppm mass accuracy as the original maXis but beats out even the 4G in terms of scanning speed at 50 spectra/second. The other new product introduced at the show by Bruker was the CaptiveSpray electrospray ionization (ESI) source, a product previously sold by Michrom. Bruker acquired Michrom earlier this year (see IBO 2/28/11). The CaptiveSpray features a novel gas flow–focusing technology and can operate at flow rates from 50 nL/minute up to 5 µL/minute. It fits all current Bruker LC/MS instruments and is priced at $12,500.

AB SCIEX did not introduce any all-new instruments at the ASMS show, but did introduce the SelexION differential ion mobility technology (see page 12). The integration of it onto the front end of an existing system could be considered the equivalent of a new model. Existing 5500 series triple quadrupole and Q-Trap LC/MS systems can be upgraded with the SelexION technology for under $100,000. The technology will also be offered as an option for somewhat less cost than the upgrade cost on new systems. SelexION provides enhanced selectivity in the separation of isobaric species. The technology, which was developed in collaboration with Sionex, is intended for quantitative applications in the pharmaceutical, peptide and applied market areas.

Waters introduced two new MS systems at ASMS. The Xevo TQD triple quadrupole LC/MS replaces the ACQUITY TQD and updates Waters’s entry-level triple quadrupole LC/MS with features from its higher-end LC/MS systems, specifically, the universal ion source architecture, T-Wave collision cell technology and RADAR data acquisition technology. Pricing of the Xevo TQD is similar to that of the ACQUITY TQD, which initially had a list price of $225,000. Also introduced at the show was Waters’s newest Q-TOF, the SYNAPT G2-S MS, which incorporates the StepWave ion-transfer optics that were previously part of its triple quadrupole systems. Waters claims the addition improves signal to noise fivefold and signal intensity 30 fold. The SYNAPT G2-S is priced about $50,000 above the previous-generation system, which would mean a starting price in the mid-$500,000s.

Thermo Fisher Scientific introduced the largest array of new instruments of any vendor at this year’s ASMS meeting. On the GC/MS side, Thermo introduced the TSQ Quantum XLS Ultra triple quadrupole GC/MS, which adds Thermo’s HyperQuad technology from Thermo’s triple quadrupole LC/MS systems and allows for more selective ultra-selected reaction monitoring analyses. In the ion trap area, Thermo introduced the high-end Velos Pro, which doubles the Velos’s scan speed to 66,000 amu/second and adds Trap-high energy dissociation (HCD) fragmentation for quantitation in applications such as structural elucidation and sequence assignment and with isobarically labeled peptides.

Thermo expanded its Exactive line with the introduction of the Q-Exactive, which includes a quadrupole mass analyzer in front of the Orbitrap but also adds the higher-end optics used in Thermo’s other higher-end LC/MS systems, as well as an HCD cell. The result is a system that offers better than 140,000 FWHM full-scan resolution and three times the sensitivity of the original Exactive. Finally, Thermo introduced the EASY-nLC 1000 split-free nano UHPLC system, which is oriented toward separation of biomolecules and uses shorter gradients on 50 µm columns.

Beckman Coulter introduced the CESI 8000 capillary electrophoresis (CE) system, which is specifically designed for use with ESI-MS. The system is capable of flow rates as low as 10 nL/minute and features a new interface based on a modified capillary tip that eliminates the need for a liquid sheath flow and allows for use with common ESI adaptors. System prices are expected to start around $120,000, and shipping should begin in October.

MassTech, which has specialized in aftermarket atmospheric-pressure MALDI sources, introduced its first complete MS system with the MT 100 Explorer mobile ion trap MS system. The system was initially developed to meet a European Space Agency requirement, and the company has yet to set a price point. IonSense, which specializes in direct atmospheric-ionization sources, introduced the ID Cube direct-ionization source. As opposed to the thermal desorption of its previous models, the system makes use of electrical desorption, which the company states is more rapid and predictable. The ID Cube is expected to begin shipping October 1 at a price of $17,000.

 Number of ASMS Conference Abstracts Which Technique Was Cited

                    2004    2005    2006    2007    2008    2009    2010    2011

 GC/MS                77     111     105      98     114     120     145     144

 MALDI-TOF           350     370     375     286     303     271     229     195

 FT-ICR              198     232     228     207     266     242     242     201

 Triple Quadrupole   173     200     173     183     223     224     223     255

 Ion Trap            460     540     586     543     572     493     446     407

 Orbitrap                                            244             465     550

 Q-Trap               19     616     686     355     697     649     615     599

 Q-TOF               216     809     864     734     697     735     682     704