Innovative Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry Technologies Made in Israel

Aviv Amirav, Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel (amirav@tau.ac.il)
Alexander Fialkov, Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Uri Keshet, Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Svetlana Tsizin, Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Benjamin Neumark, Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Tal Alon, Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is a major analytical technology that is widely used in practically all aspects of science. The most significant shortcomings of GC-MS are the often weak or absent molecular ion and the inability to analyze low volatility and thermally labile compounds.

We are engaged in a long term research of improving all the performance aspects of GC-MS from sample introduction to data analysis:

The main technology that we developed is GC-MS with Cold EI which is based on electron ionization of vibrationally cold molecules in supersonic molecular beams (SMB) (hence the name Cold EI) and on using a contact-free fly-through ion source. In addition, we also developed a range of GC-MS enhancement technologies that each can work with standard GC-MS but excel with Cold EI. The following is a list of GC-MS technologies that were developed by us in Israel and their main attributes:

1.     GC-MS with Cold EI – Providing enhanced molecular ions while significantly extending the range of compounds amenable for GC-MS analysis plus many other benefits

2.     Electron ionization LC-MS – providing library based identification at the isomer level and uniform response for LC-MS. Our EI-LC-MS is based on minor modifications of GC-MS with Cold EI. Recently we combined both GC-MS and LC-MS with Cold EI in one system with method based mode changing.

3.     ChromatoProbe sample introduction device for both MS probe operation and thermal desorption inlet with best sample path integrity.

4.     Low thermal mass fast GC for enabling sub-one minute full GC-MS analysis time.

5.     Open Probe Fast GC-MS – Real time analysis with separation and NIST library identification.  

6.     TAMI software for the provision of elemental formula from quadrupole based GC-MS and LC-MS data files.

7.     Pulsed flow modulation GCxGC-MS which with Cold EI provides ultimate level of sample identification in complex mixtures.