Triple Quadrupole MS Features Increased Sensitivity

Waters’ Xevo TQ-XS mass spectrometer—enabled by the newly designed StepWave XS ion guide—features a unique combination of ion optics, detection and ionization technologies, resulting in high levels of sensitivity.

StepWave XS ion guide removes neutral species and transmits ions in a more focused beam to the detector by incorporating segmented quadrupole transfer optics in the second stage. The result is a 2 to 10x increase in signal/noise over its StepWave predecessor, and it delivers excellent robustness over thousands of injections. The refined design allows the system to quantify challenging compounds at trace levels, even if they are labile or show poor transmission efficiency. User experience has been improved through the introduction of the tool-free atmospheric pressure ionization probes. These allow scientists to perform routine maintenance in <2 min, meaning greater operator-to-operator reproducibility and more time analyzing samples. The extremely sensitive benchtop tandem quadrupole instrument also incorporates the XDR Detector, a photomultiplier detection system capable of quantifying sample compounds across a concentration range of six orders of magnitude. Scientists no longer need to dilute and re-inject samples in order to stay within the limited dynamic range of the instrument they have been using. UniSpray, a proprietary ionization source also available on the MS, enables ionization of a wider range of analytes in a single chromatographic run. The result is an increased response across a range of compound polarities for a broader range of compounds accompanied by a boost in signal/noise, making it possible to consolidate several analytical methods into one, or eliminate the need to change ionization sources between analyses, saving time and increasing laboratory efficiency.