The MCF presented "Topics in Advanced Gas Chromatography" on December 7 and 8, 1999. The class was held on the St. Paul University of Minnesota campus. There were 23 people enrolled, which was an exceptional turn out, considering that this class was last offered in February 1999.

Cameron George, from J&W Scientific, and Daron Decker, who is with Chrom Inc. were the instructors. They gave an excellent presentation that covered topics such as fast GC, advanced injection techniques, high temperature GC, column selection, method development and trouble shooting. While class consisted of students with a wide range of backgrounds, they did an excellent job of relating theory to everyday analyses.

Thanks to Cameron and Daron for putting together this class, and for making it such a success.

To register for the course, complete the website registration form and send it with a check for $325, payable to the Minnesota Chromatography Forum.

GC|MS represents the next step in capillary chromatography by adding a third dimension to the separation of volatile analytes. Spectral information is added to retention time and peak area.

The multistage GC|MS|MS adds a fourth dimension to the bench top GC|MS. The fourth dimension represents both isolation (from interference’s and secondary fragmentation) and specific identification. Up until recently, multi stage MS was limited to the research laboratory because of complexity and cost. With the advent of the ion trap, GC|MS|MS technology is now simple and low cost. Thus, multistage GC|MS|MS technology is available to the bench top chemist.

The ionization process of the ion trap is much the same as the ionization process of a traditional quadrupole. With the quadrupole, ion formation in the ion cloud is focused and each ion is transferred to the electron multiplier after passing through the quadrupole. However, with the ion-trap after ion formation, the ions are retained in orbits in the ion chamber, based upon the ion's m|z. The advantage of the ion-trap approach is the elimination of physical components such as lenses and quadrupoles, thus leading to improved sensitivity, stability, cleanliness, simplicity and a significantly lower cost.

In the ion trap, once the ions are in orbit in the ion chamber, the RF (on the ring electrode) that establishes a stable field is ramped. RF ramping destabilizes each ion, one at a time. The destabilized ion is directed to the electron multiplier and counted- just as with the quadruple.

The first stage of GC|MS|MS is described above with one exception. The operator selects a single ion for isolation much as the SIM mode of a quadruple. Once the instrument is set for MS|MS based upon the isolation of a single ion, rather than ramping the RF as previously described, waveforms are placed on the end caps. These waveforms eject all unwanted ions. The target ion is stored in the ion trap by the RF trapping field. Additional waveforms are added to the end caps, which excite the trapped ion causing energetic collisions with the helium carrier gas. The target ion is fragmented and the RF trapping field traps the resulting product ions. The RF field is scanned in the normal manner. The unreacted target ions and the product ions are recorded by the electron multiplier. The entire process occurs in .1-. 2 seconds.

The MS|MS process is not limited to electron impact ionization (EI). Both chemical ionization (CI) and EI modes of operation are available as MS|MS.

There are three significant advantages of the ion trap approach to GC|MS|MS. The most obvious is the use of a single ion trap that does the work of three quadrupoles, each with its own vacuum system. This means the cost of the instrumentation is significantly lower. The second advantage concerns the ease of use of a bench top ion trap mass spectrometer against a much larger and significantly less user friendly triple stage quadrupole. The ion trap MS|MS process has been simplified so that most method optimization can be performed by optimizing one variable –the RF amplitude. The third advantage concerns sensitivity of the product ions. Due to transmission losses in a quadrupole system, ion traps inherently recover a higher percentage of the product ions since ion formation and detection occur in the same chamber.

Any laboratory, or routine can gain the full advantage of the simplicity, increased selectivity and unique fragmation patterns that are inherent to GC|MS|MS. Difficult applications in which full scan and SIM are inadequate can now be improved with ion-trap GC|MS|MS. Bench top ion-trap systems have eliminated the financial and practical disadvantages of MS|MS technology.

Fundamentals of Size Exclusion Chromatography and Related Polymer Separation Techniques
Dr. Howard G. Barth, DuPont Company, Central Research & Development

Mass Spectral Interpretation
Robin Pachuta, Ph.D., Program Manager, 3M Pharmaceuticals
Phil Lyon, Ph.D., Technical Manager, Analytical R&D Group, 3M Pharmaceuticals

Troubleshooting Gas Chromatography Systems - Getting the Best Results from Your Gas Chromatograph
Dr. John V. Hinshaw, President and Principal Scientist, ChromSource

Present: L Charpentier, A Dallas, D Eikens, J Jopke, R Ravichandran, P Sackett, W Swanson, B Wittrig

Treasurer’s Report: The balance is looking good. We’re in the process of moving funds from US Bank to TCF to avoid bank charges.

Symposium Committee Report: Environmental papers are coming in, papers on other topics are needed. We’re using more space at Earle Brown Heritage Center and will have room for 10-15 more booths. The new course and Symposium fee schedule will be posted on the website as soon as that information is available. The Board voted unanimously to pay a deposit to EBHC to secure dates and pricing through 2003, and to sign future contracts on an annual basis to retain preferred pricing with the Center.

Education Committee Report: Finances for the last 5 courses are finalized and the net income is around $20,000. All courses for the Symposium are set and promotional materials are undergoing final editing. E- mailings regarding the Under-Graduate Award have been sent out, and courses for 2000/2001 are being tentatively scheduled. Members are urged to suggest course topics.

Program Reports: Arrangements are complete for the February quarterly meeting, and 32 registrations have been filed on the website. No report was made on the Spring meeting.

Website: All vendors with website links renewed their support in December, and several inquiries from other vendors have been received. The Board unanimously approved offering vendors the option of paying $300 for both a website link and business cards in all newsletters, while maintaining the individual charges of $150 renewal for the website, one-time $50 link start-up, and $250 for business cards. Because link renewal occurs in December and business card renewal in summer, prorating may be necessary initially. The Symposium Manager for HPLC-2000 has requested MCF’s assistance in publicizing the event. Information will be included in the newsletter and website, and preliminary programs may be available at the Symposium.

Next Meeting: Thursday, 9 March, 7:30 pm. Contact Pat Sackett for directions.

The Minnesota Chromatography Forum (MCF) presents the Palmer Award annually at the Spring Symposium. The award recognizes one individual for their contributions to the art and science of chromatography during the previous year. Past recipients have included internationally recognized chromatographers as well as long-term MCF volunteers. Many people wonder about the Palmer Award and who is eligible to receive it. This may answer some of those questions.

What is the Palmer Award?
The Palmer Award has been given out by the MCF for the past 18 years. The award recognizes individuals for their contributions to the art and science of chromatography. The award can also be given to someone for service to the MCF or the chromatography community.

How is the Palmer Award winner selected?
A committee that reads and discusses all individuals nominated for the award selects a winner. The Past President of the MCF heads the committee.

Who can receive the award?
Any individual who works or deals with chromatography can receive the Palmer Award. The individual does not need to be regionally or nationally known for their contributions. This award is for anyone who contributes to our community.

How can I nominate someone?
Fill out the nomination below or you can find the nomination form on the MCF web site at www.minnchrom.org.

The Keynote Speaker will be Dr. Art Moseley from Glaxo Wellcome, Inc. His topic will be "Nano-Scale Capillary LC-MS-MS for Proteomic Characterization".

This Call for Papers solicits contributions for oral and poster presentations from all areas of separation science. If your group has made interesting progress in chromatography, this is an excellent opportunity to share your work with your peers.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS VIA WEBSITE
Complete information for Abstract submission is available on the MCF website at www.minnchrom.org

ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS
Complete the Abstract Information Form and type the Abstract as illustrated on the reverse side of the Abstract Information Form. The completed Abstract and Abstract Information Form may be sent:

By mail (on paper or diskette) to:
Janice Jopke / CCS Associates
6611 Countryside Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 55346

By FAX to Janice Jopke at (612) 934-6741

By e-mail to Peter Johnson at prjohnson1@mmm.com

All of the information which is requested on the Abstract Information Form must be included.

The work must be presented by a person who was directly involved in the research. Plan your presentation to be no longer than fifteen minutes followed by a 5-minute question and answer period.

The deadline for abstract submission is March 31, 2000.