In the first half of the new spectrum of atomic spectrum products

Atomic spectroscopy is the process of evaporating, atomizing/ionizing, exciting, and then introducing the radiation generated by the sample into the spectrometer for detection, as long as the determination of the composition and content of the elements, such as pre-smelting furnace analysis during industrial production, Geological exploration measurement elements, food, environmental heavy metal detection, and the recent life sciences and other fields, the atomic spectrum is an irreplaceable means of analysis and detection.

With the development of modern high-tech and the introduction of advanced components and components, atomic spectroscopic instruments have been continuously improved, instrument performance and measurement precision have been greatly improved, and analytical functions have been continuously expanded. Under the environment of energy saving and emission reduction, atomic spectrum analysis instruments have also been developing in the direction of energy saving and miniaturization in recent years, such as the application of microplasma and microchip plasmas. In addition, the combination technology has also developed rapidly, for example, Laser, chromatographic, and atomic spectroscopic techniques are used to perform elemental morphological analysis.

Now everyone's attention is focused on large-scale instruments such as mass spectrometry, which raises suspicions about the status and use of atomic spectroscopy. For this, Yang Xiaotao of the National Center for Geoanalytic Tests said, “The objects of atomic spectroscopy are those elements on the periodic table. It seems to be less, but atomic spectroscopy is a strong item for elemental determination, and the need for toxic and hazardous elemental detection in environmental safety and food safety has long existed."

The new atomic spectroscopy products launched in the first half of 2013 are: TSEL's bench-top laser-induced breakdown spectrometer ChemReveal, Bruker's inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer aurora Elite, Concentration's ICP-5000 Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometer, and Thermo Scientific. Fly iCAP 7000 series inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometer, Hitachi ZA3000 atomic absorption spectrophotometer and so on.

The new atomic spectrometers that have been marketed since 2013 have improved in both analytical speed and detection sensitivity. For example, Bruker's inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer aurora Elite offers superior sensitivity and stability. TSI's ChemReveal, Convergence's ICP-5000, and Thermo Scientific's iCAP 7000 software make quantitation and calibration more accurate and simple.

According to BW Smith, who was an atomic spectrometer advisor of the Pittsburgh Conference in 2012, LIBS (laser induced breakdown spectroscopy) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) instruments are the most prominent spectral analysis techniques currently available. And pointed out that miniaturization is a long-term trend.

One, LIBS

Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a very active branch of the field of atomic spectroscopy. Since its introduction in 1963, it has grown rapidly in recent years. A United States spectral chemical analysis “Da Niu” once said that LIBS is the brightest star in the field of elemental analysis.

LIBS utilizes the very high power density of the laser and interacts directly with matter (gas, solid, liquid) to generate a high-temperature plasma. The test element is excited or ionized in a high-temperature plasma and qualitatively analyzed according to the characteristic line. Quantitative analysis based on the intensity of the characteristic lines has the advantages of simple, fast, and no need for cumbersome sample pretreatment, simultaneous detection of multiple elements, and resistance to harsh environments (remote measurement). Its disadvantages are: relatively speaking, the limit of detection of elements is a little; the matrix effect in quantitative analysis needs to be further solved.

In a sense, the development of LIBS is accompanied by the development of LASER. The performance of LASER directly affects the analytical performance (precision, accuracy, detection limit, etc.) of LIBS. The current research trend is to use nanosecond, femtosecond, or picosecond lasers to increase detection sensitivity; dual laser pulses can increase spectral intensity by two orders of magnitude compared to single laser pulses.

For a long time, LIBS instruments are more used for qualitative analysis, and it is difficult to compete with the mature spectral instruments currently on the market, and its market space is narrow. Compared with ICP-AES, LIBS has the advantage of "efficiency" and can quickly detect samples in seconds. The sample preparation and measurement time of ICP-AES is slightly longer, and the use cost is also higher than LIBS. In addition, LIBS is more suitable for sample types, or samples whose composition and content are not particularly clear. Of course, the detection accuracy of LIBS is slightly weaker than that of ICP-AES. Compared with SPARK-AES, the main advantage of LIBS is that there are many types of suitable substrates. SPARK-AES is only suitable for conductive solid samples, non-conductive or powder samples are not applicable. LIBS can be fully qualified.

Currently, the manufacturers of LIBS products on the global market are relatively small and semi-commercial companies, and are generally based on products developed by researchers in this technology. At present, LIBS is still in the early stage of the market and the training period. Many people do not recognize LIBS technology and need a process of understanding, understanding, and accepting. However, if the technology is used for process control and online monitoring in the future, LIBS has advantages that other technologies cannot match.

TSI's benchtop laser-induced breakdown spectrometer ChemReveal

TSI acquired Photon Machines with LIBS technology in May 2012 and launched a new generation of benchtop laser-induced breakdown spectrometer ChemReveal in May 2013. Ashok Agarwala, manager of international marketing for TSI's spectrum business, said: “The new product has huge market potential. In the next few years, its sales will explode exponentially. Among them, the Chinese market has even greater potential, mainly based on Two points, one is that the high-end configuration of new hardware and software allows customers to develop their own research platform.China LIBS research is particularly active, I believe many scientific research institutes, colleges and universities will be interested in this new product. Another reason is that China It is a manufacturing country, especially in materials, as a manufacturing powerhouse, paying more attention to "benefit", which also includes the benefits of detection technology that matches production. LIBS technology integrates several other technologies well and is in production. One of the best means to increase detection efficiency."

Second, ICP-MS

Inorganic mass spectrometry has developed rapidly in recent years for the analysis of elemental components in inorganic and biological samples, or for metalomics and proteomic analysis. The most important inorganic mass spectrometer, Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), is currently considered to be the most powerful multi-element analysis technique ever since the first inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry ICP-MS commercial instrument was introduced in 1983. The number of ICP-MS instruments sold worldwide has exceeded 5,000.

ICP-MS uses a unique interface technology to combine the high-temperature (8000K) ionization characteristics of ICP with the advantages of mass spectrometers to form a new type of elemental analysis, isotope analysis, and morphological analysis techniques. Analyze almost all elements of the earth (Li-U). This technology provides extremely low detection limits, a very wide dynamic linear range, simple spectral lines, low interference, high analytical precision, fast analysis speeds, and analysis features such as isotope information. The development of ICP-MS technology has been rapid. It has developed rapidly from the initial application in the field of geology to a wide range of applications in the fields of environment, materials, biology, medicine, food, and agriculture. Various combination techniques, such as laser ablation, liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, and capillary electrophoresis, are also hot research topics.

China began to introduce ICP-MS instruments and began to apply research since the mid-1980s. From the first two or three quadrupole ICP-MS instruments and limited application range, it has developed into various types of ICP-MS instruments in various fields including quadrupole ICP-QMS and high resolution dual focusing HR-ICP. -MS, multi-receiver high-resolution dual-focusing MC-ICP-MS, and time-of-flight ICP-TOFMS. ICP-MS has played an important role in various fields such as geology and environment, and has achieved a large number of important research results.

The current mainstream ICP-QMS manufacturers and mainstream products are: Agilent 7700 and 8800 (ICP-MS/MS), PerkinElmer NexION 300, Thermo Fisher's iCAP Q, Bruker's aurora M90 (from varian) and so on. In China's ICP-QMS market, Agilent, PerkinElmer, and Thermo Fisher almost occupied the entire market. In 2012, Tianrui Instruments also launched China's first ICP-MS commercial instrument ICP-MS 2000.

Bruker Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS) aurora Elite

In February 2013, during the 2013 European Winter Plasma Spectrochemical Chemistry Conference (EWCPS), Bruker introduced an ultra-sensitive new inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) aurora Elite. According to Bruker company's official website, as a supplement and upgrade to the current aurora M90 ICP-MS, which is mainly used for routine laboratory analysis, the new aurora Elite surpasses the expensive sector in terms of instrument sensitivity and stability, and even in many aspects of performance. Magnetic mass spectrometry.

The aurora Elite uses a brand new vacuum pump, which increases the vacuum level of the instrument significantly, resulting in increased sensitivity (9Be>60 M cps/mg/L, 115 In>1500 M cps/mg/L, 232 Th>900 M cps/mg/L) ). The instrument is mainly used in industries with very high sensitivity requirements, such as electronic semiconductors, geological industries, or users who use laser ablation accessories. In order to cooperate with laser ablation injection, the instrument has also done a lot of software. Improve.

Third, ICP-AES

Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) analysis technology has been developed since the 1960s. After nearly half a century of development, ICP-AES has been optimized in terms of instrument structure, control, and software functions. The universal use of solid-state detectors and the introduction of highly-configured computers have made the instruments more compact in structure and more complete in function, and they have made a qualitative leap in terms of control reliability and data versatility. The development of ICP-AES analysis technology towards higher sensitivity, higher stability, and broader analytical applications.

At present, the development of ICP-AES instruments is in a relatively stable period, but there have been many improvements in the practicality of sample analysis. Its new progress is mainly reflected in: (1) continuous expansion of analytical capabilities; (2) solid-state detectors The application of solid-state generators tends to be widespread; (3) horizontal, vertical, or two-way observation techniques are continuously improving; (4) instrument control and data processing are being digitized and networked.

With the improvement of national related inspection requirements and the development of various industries in these years, the demand for ICP-AES instruments has increased every year. It is roughly estimated that from 2000 to now, the total number of domestic ICP-AES instruments in use should be more than 4,000, and many of these instruments were purchased in the last eight years. As far as the industry is concerned, various systems such as environmental testing, food safety, iron and steel metallurgy, geology and mining, the semiconductor industry, and comprehensive professional inspection agencies have acquired a lot of ICP-AES in recent years.

In recent years, the vast majority of China's market share of ICP-AES is occupied by imported products. In the imported ICP-AES, PerkinElmer, Thermo Fisher, and Agilent rank among the top three in terms of absolute superiority. The market share exceeds 20%, and the sum of three companies approaches 80%. Other importers of ICP-AES, such as Shimadzu, Liman, HORIBA JY, Spike, Seiko Electron Nano, Australia GBC, etc., also have a certain amount of product sales in China.

There are already many domestic manufacturers of ICP-AES, among which Beijing Nuoke and Beijing Haowei Quan have a small amount of ICP-AES production and sales. Other manufacturers, such as Beijing Haiguang, Beijing Ruili, Beijing Huake, and Tianrui Instruments, also sell small quantities every year. At present, domestic ICP-AES is mainly focused on sequential scan type. In BCEIA in 2011, Beijing Haowei Quan, Concentration Technology, Nack Company, Skyray Instruments and other domestic manufacturers all launched the full-spectrum direct-reading ICP-AES prototype for solid-state detectors, which is a very good development for domestic instruments. A good start.

Concentrated Technology's Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometer ICP-5000

On May 14, 2013, Concentration held an expert appraisal meeting of the new ICP-5000 Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometer. The expert group gave the following conclusions: “The ICP-5000 Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer is easy to operate and automated. High, stable and reliable analytical results, etc. The instrument has spectral auto-calibration function, which can work in both end-view and side-view modes; the software has qualitative, semi-quantitative, quantitative analysis and other functions; it has multiple interference correction methods and background automatic deduction functions. The instrument's main performance indicators have reached the international advanced level of similar products, filling the gap in the domestic desktop full-spectrum direct reading ICP-AES, has a good market prospects."

Congguang Technology R&D Department Product Manager Shou Yong said, “Our instruments are mainly targeted at prefecture-level testing organizations or corporate users. The demand for this market is very large. These users are more sensitive to costs and tend to 'fool' operations. We are taking the strategy of 'encircling the cities from the countryside'. We are very confident about the market prospects, and through our efforts, we believe that we will definitely change the market structure, gain greater market share, and allow customers and concentrating technology to achieve a win-win situation. We will continue to increase applied research. This is what we insist on doing. We should conduct research on the best analytical methods for the analysis objectives of more fields, and conduct research on pre-processing methods and equipment, such as better through ion exchange technology. The application of ICP-AES for the analysis of heavy metal elements such as AS, Hg, Cd, Pb, Cr, etc.; through the application, promote the local optimization and improvement of the instrument, or derive some special models to meet the requirements of a specific application.”

Thermo Fisher Scientific's iCAP 7000 Series ICP-AES

On March 18th, 2013, Thermo Fisher launched the new microelement analysis spectrometer, iCAP 7000 series ICP-AES controlled by Qtegra software. The iCAP 7000 Series is designed to simplify the workflow and reduce the cost of each sample analysis. iCAP7000 series can also analyze many types of samples under high-sensitivity working conditions. The cyclic sampling technology used improves the working efficiency. The newly designed optical system improves the sensitivity of the instrument, and the RF generator design increases the durability of the instrument.

Qtegra software is easy to learn and use, and it can integrate various peripheral devices into the elemental analysis workflow. The software can also be used for ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma emission mass spectrometer) and can be upgraded for ICP-AES. From sample injection to report generation and data analysis, Qtegra software can customize the entire workflow to a simple three-step process. Pre-optimization simplifies method development tasks, and powerful method development tools guide users through the entire process, even with more advanced workflows.

Adrian Holley, director of the market for trace elements at Thermo Fisher, said, "The combination of hardware and powerful software is best suited to help users, even new users, get the results they need quickly."

Fourth, AAS

At present, the Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) commodity instruments are in the stage of high-level technological development. The main technical indicators of each AAS instrument company are close to each other. Although atomic absorption spectrometer and atomic absorption analysis technology are very mature, various instrument manufacturers continue to strive to improve the performance of the instrument, increase the function of the instrument, expand the scope of application of the instrument, and continuously improve the instrumentation, software, and accessories, including appearance. Perfect design and color matching.

According to analysis, the annual demand for China's atomic absorption spectrometer market has exceeded 500 million yuan. Food safety, water quality monitoring and daily-use chemical industries have become the largest areas of atomic absorption. At present, China has at least 30,000 atomic absorption spectrometers in operation. In 2012, the drug regulatory agency broke out and the State Food and Drug Administration promulgated the "Regulations on Strengthening the Supervision and Administration of Pharmaceutical Excipients," which will permit the production of pharmaceutical excipients. Management requires that pharmaceutical companies strictly control the quality of pharmaceutical excipients. Industry insiders believe that the growth of AAS brought about by the capsule incident was around 1,500 units, which made the pharmaceutical industry one of the main application areas of AAS.

At present, there are about 25 atomic absorption manufacturers in the Chinese market, including 7 foreign manufacturers and 19 domestic manufacturers; and there are more than 30 atomic absorption spectrometer dealers. Domestic manufacturers surpassed foreign manufacturers in the number of instruments sold, but foreign manufacturers have an absolute advantage in the amount of sales. In addition, from the biennial BCEIA show and instrument information network exhibitors can see that atomic absorption manufacturers have shown an increasing trend in recent years.

Hitachi ZA3000 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer In March 2013, Hitachi ZA3000 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer was launched in China. ZA3000 uses two inlets for equal injection of graphite tubes to improve the atomization efficiency. The design of DC polarization Zeeman combined dual detectors enables background correction at the same wavelength and the same flame, graphite furnace two atomization. The method adopts the DC polarization Zeeman method for background correction (in the wavelength range from 160 to 930 nm); it introduces new technologies such as automatic bump detection, automatic removal of graphite tubes, continuous injection of the autosampler, and further realization of high instrumentation. Accuracy and high reliability.

V. Others

Oxford Instruments Direct Reading Spectrometer FOUNDRY-MASTER Xline

On April 25, 2013, Oxford Instruments introduced FOUNDRY-MASTER Xline, a laboratory direct-reading spectrometer tailored for Chinese foundry companies, as a German-origin desktop instrument that not only provided an extremely low price The price also has outstanding performance and practicality of high-end instruments. During the promotion period, it was put into the Chinese market at a price of RMB 228,000.

Oxford Instrument's Portable Direct Reading Spectrometer PMI-MASTER Compact

On February 22, 2013, Oxford Instruments introduced the PMI-MASTER Compact, an ideal instrument for metal inspection, quality control and safety process inspection. The PMI-MASTER Compact is a rugged, cost-effective mobile direct reading spectrometer. PMI-MASTER Compact offers fast grade identification, material reliability identification, and the simplest classification of commonly used alloys, steel, aluminum, copper, and nickel. The test work can be analyzed simply by using a portable trigger gun to align the sample with the trigger.