Key instrumentation
All instruments are maintained under a Quality Management System (ISO 9001) with regular system checks, cleaning and verification of performance.
Find out how to access our instruments or services here
Liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry
The HMSTrust Lab features five LCMS/MS and four UHPLC instruments:
- Our triple quadrupole LCMS/MS instruments are the most sensitive in the Shimadzu range. The LCMS 8030, 8050 and 8060 mass spectrometers are linked to UHPLC systems for optimum chromatography and fast run times.
- Our Shimadzu Nexera UHPLC systems offer a variety of detection options including: UV-visible, photodiode array, fluorescence and refractive index.
Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry
The Lab is equipped with a Shimadzu TQ8050 GC with Mass Spectrometer, capable of doing quantitative analyses of ultra trace amounts down to the femtogram level. This instrument is also equipped with a HS-20 headspace autosampler for measuring volatile compounds such as organic solvents
MALDI TOF-TOF
Characterisation of macromolecules such as proteins and polymers can be performed on the Shimadzu 7090 MALDI TOF-TOF. The MALDI is also capable of imaging without the need for drug labelling, providing opportunities for assessing drug disposition, metabolism and targeting directly in organs and tissues. Our MALDI capability is supported by our MALDI specialist Dr David Rudd who brings with him extensive experience in exploiting this technique for a variety of applications.
XRD
A Shimadzu XRD-7000L X-ray powder diffractometer is available for crystallographic characterisation and assessment.
Thermal analysis
PerkinElmer DSC 8500 (differential scanning calorimetry) measures changes in a material's heat capacity as it is heated or cooled. This allows for the detection of thermal transitions including melts, crystallizations, glass transition temperatures, and phase changes.
Our PerkinElmer Pyris 1 TGA (thermogravimetric analyser) measures the change in material mass as a function of temperature or time as the specimen is exposed to a controlled temperature program in a controlled environment (sub ambient to 1000 °C).
We have a second PerkinElmer DSC 8000 which is coupled to a PerkinElmer RamanFlex 400F probe providing Raman spectrometric examination of solid substances while under controlled temperature change.
...and microscopy and spectroscopy
Our current suite of instruments include:
- PerkinElmer Spotlight 400 FTIR microscope with ATR (attenuated total reflection) attachment used to acquire optical images, IR spectra and chemical distribution maps of hetrogeneous surfaces
- PerkinElmer Raman 200 optical microscope combined with a Raman spectrometer capable of measuring the Raman spectrum of material at any point on a surface and producing a spectral map of the surface
- PerkinElmer Frontier FTIR spectrometer for measuring the infra-red spectrum of either a gas, liquid or solid sample
- PerkinElmer EnSight multimode plate reader for cell based and biochemical binding assays to detect spectroscopic absorbance, fluoresces, time resolved fluorescence and phosphorescence
Moisture analysis
Our Metrohm Karl Fischer moisture analyser with an oven and auto sampler is capable of volumetric and coulometric titration to determine any water content from 0.001 to 100 per cent.