IONICON News & Views

We support young researchers at two GRCs in 2012

The Gordon Research Conferences provide an international forum for the presentation and discussion of frontier research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, and their related technologies.

Two GRCs closely related to our own scientific research and PTR-MS are now supported by IONICON in order to give young researchers the opportunity to present their work to the scientific community.

These days the GRC for Plant Volatiles takes place in Ventura, CA, January 29 – February 3, 2012 and has as topics: Ecology, Biosynthesis, Regulation and Animal Perception of Floral and Vegetative Volatiles, Plus their Roles in Human Flavor and Agriculture.

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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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A new generation of ultra-sensitive PTR-MS online mass spectrometers for VOC analysis now complements the IONICON PTR-QMS series

We  present the new PTR-QMS-500 series to the analytical and laboratory market: highest performance and lowest detection limits (< 1 pptv) for VOCs detection and monitoring based on Proton Transfer Reaction – Mass Spectrometry. The PTR-QMS 500 series is the 4^th generation of PTR-MS systems developed and commercialized by IONICON Analytik GmbH, Innsbruck Austria.

The High-Sensitivity PTR-QMS 500 and its sister instrument, the PTR-QMS 500 are the successors of the world’s bestselling PTR-QMS instrument series, the IONICON High-Sensitivity PTR-MS and Standard PTR-MS. This is the new flagship quadrupole-based PTR-MS series where created a new generation of instruments providing the highest sensitivity available in the PTR-MS market but also incorporating several new features and improvements we developed in response to the needs and feedback of our customers.

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Effective and fast local PTR-MS sales and support for US customers now directly available from IONICON US, Inc., New Jersey.

In March 2011 we founded IONICON US, Inc., a totally-owned subsidiary of Austrian-based IONICON Analytik GmbH. Our new US subsidiary takes over the marketing and after-sales-support for the United States and Canada. I am looking forward to the start-up of operations at IONICON US. This will improve the user experience as one of our most experienced PTR-MS experts is now residing in New Jersey and is available for inquiries, customer showcases and professional after-sales-service.

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Technical Advances in Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometry and New Fields of Application.

In 1998 IONICON was founded and we were able to sell the first commercial instrument. Since then, after years of dedicated research, passionate development and intensively working together with our partners and customers, we sold more than 200 units. Learn more on the recent advances of the PTR-MS technology, our products and their applications in an article with the title Technical Advances in Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometry and New Fields of Application, published in American Laboratory (September 01, 2011) being available online.

PTR-MS hilft dabei neue Erkenntnisse über die Schadstoffverteilung in der Atmosphäre zu gewinnen.

Armin Wisthaler und Tomas Mikoviny von der Universität Innsbruck sind das einzige ausländische Forscher-Team, das auf Einladung der NASA an 14 Messflügen mit ihrem PTR-MS Instrument teilgenommen hat.

Detaillierte Kenntnisse über die Verteilung und den Transport von Luftschadstoffen in der Atmosphäre können zuverlässig nur durch Messungen aus Luft gewonnen werden, weshalb die beiden Forscher im NASA Messflugzeug P-3B über dem Großraum Washington-Baltimore unterwegs waren. Mit ihrem Protonentausch-Reaktions Massenspektrometer (PTR-MS) wurden die Konzentration von verschiedenen Kohlenwasserstoffen ermittelt, die an der Bildung von Ozon und Feinstaub beteiligt sind. „Wir haben bereits vor drei Jahren mit dem PTR-MS an einer NASA-Kampagne sehr erfolgreich teilgenommen, weshalb man uns auch zu DISCOVER-AQ wieder eingeladen hat“, erzählt Wisthaler. „Da das Flugzeug etwa 100 Meter pro Sekunde zurücklegt, sind schnelle Messungen, wie sie das PTR-MS durchführen kann, unabdingbar“, ergänzt er. Während des Fluges wird über einen Einlass Luft eingesaugt und das PTR-MS ermittelt in Sekundenschnelle die Konzentration von Kohlenwasserstoffen.

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PTR-MS technology made in Austria contributes to important results of the CLOUD experiments at CERN.

The CLOUD experiment has been designed to study the effect of cosmic rays on the formation of atmospheric aerosols – tiny liquid or solid particles suspended in the atmosphere – under controlled laboratory conditions. Atmospheric aerosols are thought to be responsible for a large fraction of the seeds that form cloud droplets.

The CLOUD results show that trace vapors assumed until now to account for aerosol formation in the lower atmosphere can explain only a tiny fraction of the observed atmospheric aerosol production. The results also show that ionization from cosmic rays significantly enhances aerosol formation. Precise measurements such as these are important in achieving a quantitative understanding of cloud formation, an important contribution to climate models.

The prestigious NATURE journal has now published first results from the CLOUD experiment, where two PTR-MS instruments from the Institute for Ion Physics and Applied Physics of the University of Innsbruck contributed to this cutting edge project. A quadrupole based PTR-MS was used to monitor trace concentrations of Ammonia and a PTR-TOF-MS system (based on time of flight technology) continuously scanned organic vapor concentrations in the CLOUD chamber.

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