The Innovators 2016

Ocean Optics Embraces the Power of Spectroscopy

At the heart of it, innovation is about solving problems

After decades of innovation, modular spectroscopy has become a powerful technology for use in compact, reliable instrumentation across various applications. Today, Ocean Optics (www.OceanOptics.com) is a leader in modular spectroscopy for needs ranging from lab testing and turnkey measurement solutions to field analysis and custom OEM analytical systems.

Ocean Optics offers a portfolio of market-leading miniature spectroscopy equipment - modular, highly customizable building blocks that offer a fundamental method of measuring and interpreting the interaction of light with matter.  We combine these tools with the knowledge to solve measurement problems, providing assistance to our customers in utilizing spectroscopy in ever-evolving ways.

This drive has led us on many journeys with our R&D and commercial partners. We have supported NASA on space missions, summited Mount Everest with researchers measuring ozone, and partnered with developers on systems that monitor food safety.

Ocean Optics has built a solid infrastructure of spectrometers, accessories and know-how to help provide solutions for a wide range of dynamic and demanding measurement challenges.

[email protected], www.OceanOptics.com

Separate Your Science from the Status Quo

How chromatographic boundaries are being shattered: UHPLC innovations that help scientists solve their toughest analytical challenges.

In scientific research, the need for instrumentation that is newer, faster, and better, is not innovative. Scientists have long looked for ways to break down traditional chromatographic boundaries that have stifled research from realizing that next big discovery.

Traditionally, companies have tackled advancements in liquid chromatography through incremental advancements, but these minor improvements have failed to provide the tangible results researchers need. As Jeanine Pippitt, Global HPLC Marketing Manager for Thermo Fisher Scientific, points out, manufacturers have focused on a baby-step approach through frequent small improvements instead of true instrument innovation. “If you fix one problem at a time or you are constantly releasing small upgrades, you often cause more problems than you originally had. I think a lot of the improvements that we’ve seen in UHPLC systems were actually more like a series of Band-Aids,” says Pippitt. “We wanted to do better.”

With this mindset, the engineers at Thermo Fisher stepped back, looked at what was currently possible and asked themselves: what are the true limitations facing scientists with modern UPHLC systems? They focused on seven big challenges:

1. Pressure and flow rates limitations
2. Sample delivery precision
3. An easy to use UHPLC, without  sacrifice on performance
4. Detector capabilities
5. A lack of easy method portability
6. Run-to-run reproducibility
7. Robustness of system, preventing frustrating maintenance and downtime

They imagined how an instrument that could be versatile for a variety of chromatographic needs – from small molecule analysis to large molecule analysis. How an instrument could be simple-to-use and integrate easily into any lab, and how this instrument would be robust enough to handle the most challenging separations with confidence. The result of these efforts is the award-winning Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ UHPLC platform. 
As Pippitt states, “When I first saw the data, I almost didn’t believe the chromatography presented in the literature. I thought it was just marketing fluff. It’s not.”

The new Vanquish platform uses an ultra-precise piston drive that has the highest pressure pump on the market, without restricting flow rate. At 1500 bar, up to 5 mL/min, and a 1000 bar system that runs up to 8 mL/min; the new platform can now open new avenues to scientists and researchers in a variety of fields. Both pump types, binary and quaternary, use Thermo Scientific™ SmartFlow™ solvent delivery technology; this ensures excellent flow and gradient precision, independent of eluent composition and an improved retention time precision that is up to 11 times better.

Method portability is simple and the Vanquish platform’s hardware and software can be configured to replicate delay volumes and column environments of other UHPLC platforms, including competitive systems. One unique hardware feature is the active and passive heating and cooling, providing unique separation refinement and precision.

Thermo Scientific™ Viper™ Fittings are used throughout the entire system.  These are “finger tight” tool-free, virtually zero dead-volume connection systems; that allow scientists to quickly connect LC modules, valves and columns and improve chromatographic results.

Engineers constructed robust valves with  unique coatings so that scientists would only need to perform minimal preventive maintenance.

The completely new design of the Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ Diode Array Detector (DAD) HL incorporates Thermo Scientific™ LightPipe™ Flow Cells, which provide the best signal-to-noise (S/N) performance through the combination of lowest baseline noise, a very long light path, and minimum peak dispersion. The ultra-wide dynamic range is ideal for simultaneous detection of highly concentrated main compounds and impurities down to trace levels.

Other detectors include the Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ Fluorescence Detector offering selectivity and sensitivity, as well as, the Thermo Scientific™ Charged Aerosol Detector technology to measure analytes that cannot be detected by UV and consistent response independent of chemical structure or quantity.
The high-throughput Charger module is an intelligent, fully integrated robotic unit for environmentally controlled sample management and automated sample loading of up to 23 well plates into the Vanquish system with sample tray barcode reading.

The Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ Horizon UHPLC system and Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ Flex UPHLC system have both been recognized as innovative products by R&D Magazine. The Vanquish platform is in a unique position to take chromatographic research to the next level. Learn more about the Vanquish platform at www.thermofisher.com/vanquish.

Innovations Come Together to Set These Systems Apart

With over 75 years of experience in the industry, PerkinElmer is no stranger to innovation. This year is no different. As 2016 draws to a close, here is a look at the innovations from PerkinElmer.

Patented Technologies Deliver Improved Efficiencies

The QSight™ triple quadrupole LC/MS/MS is an end-to-end solution designed to deliver maximum sensitivity and exceptional uptime for meeting both your industry and operational requirements. Inside and out, QSight comes together with unique patented technologies in a compact, easy-to-use form factor. And it gives you 15% more uptime due to a self-cleaning source that requires virtually no maintenance.

High sensitivity, even higher productivity

Unique StayClean™ technology employs hot-surface induced desolvation (HSID™), a multi-orthogonal sampling interface that can significantly increase your uptime.

Instrument drift and frequent reoptimization and cleaning are eliminated, for better productivity, thanks to the systems Laminar Flow Ion Guide™.

For standard methods or regulatory compliance, the QSight triple quad can do both - while giving you more time to run more samples reliably and confidently. It’s LC/MS/MS done right.

Portable Innovation for Faster Results

PerkinElmer’s Torion® T-9 portable GC/MS brings new meaning to innovation and portability. You can take this one-of-a kind GC/MS to your samples wherever they are. Torion T-9 is the lightest, fastest and most portable gas chromatograph toroidal ion trap mass spectrometer – and provides reliable, reproducible results. At a weight of only 32lb, the Torion T-9 GC/MS is ideal to carry in the field for rapid screening of chemicals such as environmental volatiles and semi-volatiles (VOCs/SVOCs), explosives, chemical threats, and hazardous substances.

Get Actionable Results in Less Than 20 Minutes

With the Torion T-9 GC/MS, first responders can act rapidly and reliably to unexpected critical incidents.  The system is fully self-contained, easy-to-operate and ready for sample analysis in under five minutes. Simply, collect, analyze, and identify samples on site with virtually no degradation, transport and processing, which significantly reduces the time it takes to get actionable results – by more than 70 times faster than conventional lab analysis.

The Best Answers Happen When Great Technologies Connect

Materials get more complex all the time. So the need for their precise analysis has never been greater. PerkinElmer’s TGA and STA systems coupled with FT-IR, MS, or GC/MS systems represent the industry’s most complete and advanced hyphenated platforms for answering how materials degrade and gases evolve – revealing new information not available to single systems working alone. Because of this experience, PerkinElmer is the only company capable of making, supporting, and servicing a combined system.

Are you interested in how a material responds to a non-standard test environment like high UV levels or humidity changes? TG-DMA or UV-DSC can give you the answer. Do you want to better understand how a material degrades or what gases evolve when that material burns? PerkinElmer’s TG instruments can be coupled to several FT-IR, MS, or GC/MS options to provide you with greater knowledge, gain better insight and advance your laboratory.

Hyphenation with PerkinElmer provides pathways for innovation and scientific understanding because the more you know, the more you can do.

New Level of Performance and Flexibility

PerkinElmer’s new Avio™ 200 is a compact ICP-OES that combines a vertical plasma design with a host of unique hardware features to handle even the most difficult, high-matrix samples without dilution, delivering a whole new level of performance and flexibility to ICP.

The smallest ICP on the market, the Avio 200 offers the most efficient operation, reliable data, and lowest cost of ownership with:

• The lowest total argon consumption of any ICP: only 9 L/min, compared to 21 L/min required by other systems;
• The fastest ICP startup: spectrometer ready in just 10 minutes from power on (versus up to 2 hours);
• Superior sensitivity and resolution for all elements of interest;
• The widest linear range;
• Plus, Avio 200’s unprecedented performance comes with unparalleled ease-of-use. Unique hardware features combine with the industry’s most intuitive software to make multi-element analysis as easy as single-element.

New series of thermal desorption instruments

Dependable, highly sensitive pre-concentration of organic volatiles for GC–MS, for everything from routine analysis to cutting-edge research.

The new ‘xr’ series of thermal desorption instruments from Markes International builds on Markes’ 20 years of experience and reputation as the global leader in TD technology.

The series includes the flagship TD100-xr™, a 100-tube thermal desorber that allows the quantitative re-collection of both inlet and outlet split flows, meaning that valuable samples can be re-run, and that complete desorption can be easily validated.

Markes’ TD instruments pre-concentrate VOCs and SVOCs from air and materials, enabling the detection of these compounds using standard GC–MS equipment. None of Markes’ instruments use liquid cryogen, reducing operational costs and ensuring fast sample processing.

Other members of the ‘xr’ series include instruments for analysis of single tubes (UNITY-xr™), on-line air streams (Air Server-xr™) and continuous air sampling (TT24-7xr™). Also available are a 100-tube autosampler (ULTRA-xr™), and the Kori-xr™ system for removing water from humid air sampled on-line or using canisters.