Knowledge Base

Learn more about the power of trace gas analysis using SIFT-MS. Download our latest brochures, application notes and white papers or watch an application-focused video. Questions? Contact us!

The characteristic flexibility, stability, high throughput, and fast time to data of the Syft Tracer next-gen SIFT-MS instrument apply across multiple headspace approaches for diverse matrices. This application note briefly summarizes the use of (1) dissolution, (2) multiple headspace extraction (MHE), and (3) the method of standard additions, then provides a guide for identifying the appropriate headspace approach for various matrices.

In this application note, the performance of SIFT-MS is evaluated for analysis of odors from diverse sources at a modern wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). SIFT-MS provides comprehensive, quantitative profiling of odor sources and can identify operational abnormalities.  In particular, the results presented demonstrate that methyl mercaptan is almost always a more significant odorant at this WWTP than hydrogen sulfide and confirm that the relative abundances of these odorants vary significantly.

This application brief summarizes a scenario relevant to contract research organization (CRO) and contract drug manufacturing organization (CDMO) laboratories where multiple volatile impurity methods need to be conducted in short runs. Five analyses are considered that can be handled by one Syft Tracer but require multiple legacy, chromatography instruments. For these analyses, SIFT-MS reports the first quantitative results 2- to 12-fold faster, and has sample throughputs 3- to 17-fold higher than the conventional procedures.

This application note describes high throughput analysis of formaldehyde in fragrances that utilizes a method of standard additions to overcome matrix effects from variable headspace compositions of the samples tested.  SIFT-MS delivers >2X faster time to data with up to 5X greater throughput than chromatographic methods. 

This study demonstrates high-throughput analysis of BTEX compounds from several matrices (air, water and soil). Detection limits in the single-digit part-per-billion concentration range (by volume) are readily achievable within seconds using SIFT-MS, because sample analysis is achieved without chromatography, pre-concentration, or drying.  We also present a calibration approach that enables speciation of ethylbenzene from the xylenes in real time.

This application note describes a scenario in which Syft Tracer^TM replaces five chromatography systems and still has significant available sample capacity. SIFT-MS provides rapid, chromatography-free analysis that revolutionizes multiple workflows.

This application note describes how the efficiency of a MHE workflow can be significantly improved for MHE-SIFT-MS due to the stability of the technique. Formaldehyde impurity is analyzed easily and quantitatively in Gelucire excipient with this improved approach.  The time-to-result is reduced to 85 minutes for this system – six-fold faster than the conventional MHE-SIFT-MS approach.  Quantitative analysis is achieved at the throughput of 220 samples/day.

Syft Tracer^TM is the latest advancement in real-time, direct injection mass spectrometry (MS) built to solve the most difficult analytical challenges faced within a variety of industries and applications.  This advancement to SIFT-MS delivers trace-level detection sensitivity, unparalleled performance stability, superior selectivity, and highly reproducible, quantitative data.  Syft Tracer is optimized for high-throughput environments where continuous operation is the standard.  Never miss a product or environmental contamination event again.

Join us for this webinar to learn about Syft Tracer, the latest advancement of real-time, trace gas analysis by SIFT-MS which launched at Pittcon 2023. Hear how the recent product innovations unlock analytical bottlenecks and enable faster decisions to be made in critical process steps.

SIFT-MS has been widely applied to quantitative analysis of a broad range of VOCs in applications from food products to workplace safety to environmental monitoring, and most recently to pharmaceutical testing. This review surveys the applications of SIFT-MS in odor analysis and in workplace, environmental and consumer protection, with a particular focus on the complementarity of this real-time mass spectrometry analyzer to sensor technology and conventional laboratory techniques—in particular, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS).

SIFT‐MS is now recognized as the most versatile analytical technique for the identification and quantification of trace gases down to the parts‐per‐trillion by volume, pptv, range. This statement is supported by the wide reach of its applications, from real‐time analysis, obviating sample collection of very humid exhaled breath, to its adoption in industrial scenarios for air quality monitoring. This review touches on the recent extensions to the underpinning ion chemistry kinetics library and the alternative challenge of using nitrogen carrier gas instead of helium. 

This application note describes head-to-head comparison of GC-FID and SIFT-MS analyses of Class 2A and 2B residual solvents. The techniques perform similarly for linearity and repeatability, but SIFT-MS provides superior performance for accuracy and recovery. Furthermore, SIFT-MS provides greater than 11-fold increase in sample throughput and significantly reduces the time taken to report quantitative results (over six times faster for a full calibration set).