PQ LC Series Highly Sensitive Solutions for the Determination of Element Species

PQ LC Series for High Performance Liquid Chromatography

The combination of PQ LC and PlasmaQuant MS (LC-ICP-MS) offers a versatile, robust, and highly sensitive solution for the determination of element species in various kinds of samples. The species or chemical form of elements determines their mobility, bioavailability, and toxicity. Since characteristics vary dramatically depending on the species in which an element is present, careful characterization of environmental, food, and agricultural samples and of consumer goods is required. Liquid chromatography or ion chromatography makes it possible to separate these species. The subsequent detection by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry provides a highly sensitive method for their quantification. Hence, LC-ICP-MS provide an essential tool for assessing benefits and/or risk of elements present in the sample.

Environmental – elemental speciation plays an important role in respect to evaluating chemistry, geochemistry or bio-geo-chemistry of different pollutants as well as their bioavailability and toxicity towards organisms or their chemical and physical effects on natural cycles. Elements of interest in species identification are arsenic, selenium, chromium, mercury, cadmium, and many more.

Food and Agriculture – the quantification of major and trace elements, and of essential, nutritional, and potentially toxic elements is a common application in ICP-MS. Since an element can be essential or toxic just based on the oxidation state or compound in which it occurs, the determination of elemental species in foods and beverages is crucial for ensuring the safety of foodstuffs. LC-ICP-MS makes the determination of elemental species possible, for example in the analysis of food samples, such as sea fish, rice, chocolate, and apple juice for arsenic, selenium, or chromium.

Clinical and Pharma – multiple regulations and standards describe quality control procedures to ensure the efficiency and harmlessness of pharmaceutical products . During production, pharmaceutical products may, for example, be contaminated with chromium. Therefore, the potential toxicity must be evaluated by identifying the species present according to defined standards. In clinical analysis, element speciation plays a minor role. However, the identification of arsenic species in body fluids, such as whole blood, serum, or urine, gives insight for the risk assessment of workplaces.