Liquid-Phase Chromatograph coupled to an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (HPLC-ICP-MS)

本提案中申请的仪器是液相色谱仪耦合电感耦合等离子体质谱仪（LC-ICP-MS，更具体地说，是生物惰性HPLC-ICP-MS/MS），以取代拜罗伊特大学环境地球化学小组现有的过时的类似配置。该仪器是该小组当前和未来基础研究以及国内和国际合作的核心。该小组的研究旨在确定和量化控制环境中必需或潜在有毒微量元素的命运和运输的化学和（微）生物过程。主要目标是超越总元素的量化，而是识别个体，通常是以前未知或未被识别的物种。该小组在与硫的生物地球化学循环相互联系的氧化还原敏感微量元素方面的工作享有国际声誉。目前和计划中的个人和合作研究项目（由DFG， BMBF， EU等资助）都基于该小组在其自己的实验室中对该仪器的专业知识和可及性，其中也包括进一步的方法开发。仪器的主要要求是一个高性能的液相色谱前端系统，对通常使用的高腐蚀性洗脱液具有化学惰性（处理硫代物质需要高达pH 13的洗脱条件），能够用不同的洗脱液平行清洗柱，用梯度洗脱液进行样品分析，并用单独应用的洗脱液进行在线样品预处理（通过两个平行的四元泵实现）。检测器（ICP-MS）必须能够在大浓度范围内定量金属（样物质），具有高灵敏度，对环境基质的鲁棒性，有效去除干扰的能力，包括等压干扰的分辨率（通过三重四极杆设置实现），以及快速连续的多元素检测。样品导入必须自动工作，灵活的吸收体积，自动内部标准加峰，水稀释或载气稀释。硬件和软件的耦合要求，包括两个仪器之间的双向通信，必须由一个制造商实现，软件必须既允许大部分自动化程序的测量，又允许在完全独立的模式下开发方法，手动控制所有参数。数据解释软件必须对整个工作组免费开放。

The instrument applied for within the present proposal is a liquid-phase chromatograph coupled to an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (LC-ICP-MS, more specifically a bioinert HPLC-ICP-MS/MS) to replace an existing, outdated similar configuration within the Environmental Geochemistry Group at Bayreuth University. The instrument is central for the group´s current and future fundamental research and national and international collaborations. The group´s research aims at identifying and quantifying chemical and (micro)biological processes that govern fate and transport of either essential or potentially toxic trace elements in the environment. The major goal is to go beyond total element quantification, instead identify individual, often previously unknown or unrecognized, species. The group has an international reputation especially for their work on redox-sensitive trace elements interlinking with the biogeochemical cycle of sulfur. Current and planned individual and collaborative research projects (funded by e.g. DFG, BMBF, EU) all base on the group´s expertise with and accessibility of that instrument in their own laboratories, among others also for further method development.The major requirements for the instrumentation are a high performance liquid-phase chromatography front end system, chemically inert against the typically used highly corrosive eluents (work with thiolated species requires elution conditions up to pH 13), capable of column cleaning with different eluents parallel to sample analysis with gradient eluents and online sample pre-treatment with separately applied eluents (realized with two parallel quaternary pumps). The detector (ICP-MS) must enable quantification of metal(loid)s over a large concentration range, with high sensitivity, robustness against environmental matrices, ability of efficient removal of interference, including resolution of isobaric interferences (realized with a triple quadrupole setup), and fast consecutive multi-element detection. Sample introduction must work automatically with flexible uptake volumes, automatic internal standard spiking, aqueous dilution or carrier gas dilution. Requirements of hardware and software for coupling, including two-way communication between both instruments, must be implemented from one single manufacturer and the software must both allow for measurements with largely automatized routines as well as for method development on a fully individual mode with manual control of all parameters. Software for data interpretation must be freely accessible to the whole work group.