Shimadzu unveils mid-range ICP-MS

The Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS) can measure a variety of elements in powdered milk products and other foods, including raw ingredient and finished items.

The mini-torch plasma unit, developed by the firm, minimizes the energy (electricity) consumed in producing and maintaining an argon plasma.

Mid-range instrument​

Johan Leinders, product manager spectroscopy marketing Europe, said it is the first global ICP-MS platform.

“The technology as such is not new for Shimadzu, we had ICP-MS from the early 90s in Asia, this is the first global solution and we put it into market as a mid-class instrument,” ​he told FoodQualityNews at Analytica in Munich.

“The basic set-up is straightforward so we copied a lot of things from the ICP-OES which we already had and we had a good look at our MS colleagues for the MS part.”​

ICP-OES is an optical system that measures photons and the MS is a mass based instrument so it measures mass ratios and can do lower detection limits.

Running costs for both systems are quite similar due to the need to use argon gas.

The mid-range instrument features a collision cell – while low range instruments likely do not have any - to remove interferences and the high end instruments have a hybrid cell that can do collision and reaction or a reaction cell.

This enables analysis at ppt level sensitivity and, depending on the elements, sub ppt levels. This sensitivity is achieved by minimized spectral interference and improved transmission efficiency of atomic ions, said the firm.

Leinders said the high end was not its focus at the moment as these instruments were aimed at semi-conductor and cleaning room applications.

‘Food a focus market’​

Food has become a focus market for all techniques at the firm, said Leinders.

“Almost every week you can read in the newspapers a new scandal or a new theory about food health, glyphosate in German beer and things like that. For the food market we are focussing on the beverages because that is the main segment in Europe, so the beer, the wine, the water, the dairy products.” ​

There are two basic things you can do analysis for in the food market, he said.

“First of all are the nutritional elements which are usually present in quite high concentration and secondly are the harmful elements so the heavy metals mostly. These are quite far apart in concentration range so you need an instrument with a large dynamic range which is possible with an ICP-MS and still you can comply with the local regulations in regards to detection limits.”​

Leinders said matrix interference was the main disadvantage with ICP-MS over ICP-OES.

“Our software is aimed at new users for ICP-MS because there are two assistant functions included so we have a development assistant and a diagnosis assistant,” ​he said.

“The development assistant first makes a qualitative measurement of your sample and based on the results it will propose to you some solutions, use this mass number or that mass number, use a particular internal standard for instance. So as a beginner user you are taken by the hand by the software to do the correct things. You can also gain a lot of time by doing this automated even if you are experienced.​

“The diagnosis assistant will then look at the results you obtained and look for potential problems and promote possible solutions, so again a back-up for the less experienced. Typically we say that an experienced user needs 20-30 minutes for a typical dataset to verify all is ok, the software does it in three minutes.”​

Leinders said modern labs have such a variety of techniques they want any help they can get.

“For some of them like UV or FTIR people might be able to cope, they have a low threshold, but when you get more into the MS world you basically need specialists who do mostly that and only that,” ​he said. ​

“This is not always possible for every laboratory and certainly in the food markets, breweries or companies who are not that big, don’t have dedicated people for every instrument so they need to be generalists and that is who this software is targeted at.”​

The instrument was launched in the US at Pittcon and at Analytica in Germany. During the launch called “Critical Mass Tour” it will travel to Belgium, Hungary, France and others.