IONICON News & Views

The focus of EU project LCAOS is the development of nano-sensors for medical breath analysis. Ionimed provides PTR-MS technology to complement the sensor information and develops a novel calibration device for sensor characterization.

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IONICON N.A.S.E. is a heated device for the collection of nosespace air and direct introduction into the inlet of a PTR-MS system.

We listened to the feedback from our customers and developed a device for further improving our response time optimized heated PEEK inlet system, especially for PTR-MS users in food, flavor & fragrance science.

Substances of interest such as e.g. Vanillin are often very “sticky” and condensate on cold spots of an inlet system. Therefore we have engineered a solution overcome this issue.

Watch the video below to see how you can benefit from IONICON N.A.S.E.!

A new review article in Trends in Analytical Chemistry discusses direct-injection mass spectrometry for VOC analysis.

F. Biasioli, C. Yeretzian, T. D. Märk, J. Dewulf and H. Van Langenhove wrote an interesting review with the title “Direct-injection mass spectrometry adds the time dimension to (B)VOC analysis” that was recently published in Trends in Analytical Chemistry 30 (7) (2011).

We at IONICON are often asked what actually the differences and in our case, the benefits of the PTR-MS technology compared to other, similar methods are. Not only a technical comparison is of interest but also feedback from studies in the field covering various applications is in high demand by people contacting us.

For me the advantages of PTR-MS are obvious and I also know which position our technology and products have in the market, but of course it is more credible if an article in a peer-reviewed journal has such a comparison as topic and gives the reader a chance to follow a well grounded debate.
The synopsis of this article with regards to PTR-MS and my conclusion, I would summarize as follows only mentioning the most intriguing arguments:

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After several years of intense research in close collaboration international partners from both, medical research and biopharmaceutical companies, Ionimed Analytik has released an overview articel, summarizing this work.

This technical article Applications of PTR-MS in Medicine and Biotechnology has been published in American Laboratory (Tuesday, June 14, 2011) and is available online via this link.

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VOC emissions in our homes, offices or cars – an exemplary study of commercial air fresheners

Volatile Organic Compouns (VOCs) are chemicals that vaporize at room temperature and many of which are known to be harmful to our health or have a bad smell. Nearly every commercial product we use emits VOCs, some of them on purpose (e.g. air fresheners) but a lot of them unintentionally (e.g. furniture like carpets or paints).

Regulations exist to keep the level of VOC emissions low as many people react irritated to some of the substances. The so called ”Sick Building Syndrome” is a situation where according to the US EPA “…Building occupants complain of symptoms associated with acute discomfort…”.  ”Chemical contaminants from indoor sources” is cited as one of the “contributing factors to sick building syndrom”.

IONICON PTR-MS is often used for real-time quantification of trace VOCs in our outdoor environment, but also indoors. PTR-MS allows for straightforward, immediate analysis of air without any complicate sample preparation providing real-time results as mass spectra. Therefore many customers use PTR-MS for applications including:

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Ehrung für Prof. Amann für Echtzeit Atemluft-Analytik an der Univ.-Klinik in Innsbruck

Univ.-Prof. Anton Amann von der Univ.-Klinik für Anästhesie und Intensivmedizin wird für seine Leistungen auf dem Gebiet der Atemgasanalytik mit der renommierten Marie Sklodowska Curie Medaille geehrt.

Besonders im Bereich der Echtzeit Analytik von Atemluft bestechen die IONICON PTR-MS Instrumente durch ihre schnelle Reaktionszeit (< 100 ms) und dem herausragenden Detektionslimit im einstelligen pptv-Bereich (parts-per-trillion – 1 Teilchen Substanz auf 100 Milliarden Teilchen Luft ist noch nachweisbar). Dabei findet die noch relativ junge aber vielversprechende Technologie der Protonen-Transfer-Reaktions Time-of-Flight (PTR-TOF) Massenspektrometrie Anwendung, die von IONIMED für medizinische Anwendungen weiterentwickelt wurde und von Prof. Amann für seine Forschung eingesetzt wird.

Lesen Sie hier den Artikel der Medizinischen Universität Innsbruck.

On July 1,  a PTR-MS was part of a science show in national German television.

Today the German TV station ARD has broadcasted the science show “Die große Show der Naturwunder” at prime time in its evening program. Among the scientific experts is Dr. Jens Herbig from Ionimed Analytik in Innsbruck to talk about breath gas analysis including a live demonstration using an IONICON Compact PTR-MS.

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