7500 QTRAP®, a Device for Trace Analysis

The result of collaboration between IQS and the company SCIEX, the IQS SCIEX Demo Lab has featured a Triple Quad™ 7500 LC-MS/MS System – QTRAP® since 2021. This device is the most sensitive Triple Quad mass spectrometer that SCIEX offers.

The 7500 QTRAP® is a triple quad device with a linear ion trap connected to a liquid chromatograph system, which allows for quantification limits on the order of parts per trillion (ppt) and parts per quadrillion (ppq). Performing analyses at such low levels makes it possible to simplify the sample preparation stages and reduce the injection volumes. As such, this is an ideal system for laboratories that use demanding applications that require the highest level of sensitivity for the quantification of trace levels.

Apart from its sensitivity, this instrument offers an expansive linear range, precision, and instrumental accuracy, which, due to its low cycle time, allows for the “multi-residue” determination of hundreds of analytes in a single analysis.

Analytical capacities of the 7500 QTRAP®.

Due to its high sensitivity, this instrument can be used in diverse fields of investigation within the IQS research groups, including the quantification of waste and pollutants in water, and the quantification of drugs and genetic material.

Furthermore, since its installation, the researchers have partnered with other institutions and companies in specific research fields, such as:

Implementation and validation of a method of analysis to determine specific types of medications present in food supplements by LC-MS/MS, a project carried out with the Public Health Agency of Barcelona.

• Determination of emerging and persistent contaminants absorbed in microplastics released in the environment.
• Quantification of minority components in extractables in the food sector.
• Quantification of cyanotoxins in water samples from different rivers in Catalonia.
• Quantification of cyanotoxins in cyanobacteria biomass used with dietary purposes as a nutritional supplement.
• Drug integrity and release studies based on nanometric formulations.
• Qualitative evaluation of the integrity and quantification of genetic material, and its modifications.

The Triple Quad™ 7500 LC-MS/MS System – QTRAP® can thus be applied in highly diverse areas and it can offer service in a variety of fields as diverse as the environment, natural products and food, omic sciences, and in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry. All these are fields where the different research groups at IQS have extensive experience.