Pittcon is currently underway, with exhibitors and attendees roaming the show floor, darting off to conference rooms for presentations, networking with friends in the aisles, and basking in all the scientific glow. For 75 years, Pittcon has been drawing analytical chemists and other scientists from every conceivable industry into a web of collaboration, expertise, experience, education and more.
This year, there are about 470 exhibitors—LECO being one of them. In anticipation of the big show, Labcompare recently sat down with John Hayes, Separation Science Product Manager at LECO, to get an idea of what he expects to see this year in San Deigo.
Q: Can you briefly describe the new product you will be showing at Pittcon?
A: LECO is showcasing the newest addition to our family of GCxGC modulators—the Paradigm flow modulator. The Addition of our new Shift™ flow splitter permits dual detection with our high sensitivity TOF and FID.
Q: What problem(s) does this product address?
A: The Paradigm and Shift unite non-targeted and quantitative workflows for thorough characterization of complex samples, obviating the need for separate instrumentation and methodologies.
Q: What makes this product different from others in the same category?
A: The Paradigm’s design philosophy was to address the maintenance and method development hassles of other flow modulators, which have severely hampered their commercial adoption. The Shift flow splitter was specially designed to maintain constant detector split and MS flow without degrading GCxGC separation efficacy. This is unique in the marketplace, and permits quantitative accuracy with minimal calibration, even when performing complex non-targeted analyses.
Q: What trends/innovations in GC mass spec do you expect to see more of while at Pittcon? What about elemental analysis?
A: Certainly miniaturization and robustness improvements, which are essentially standard practice now. But lately there’s been a push for improved ionization methods, and I hope to see this continue.
Q: Is LECO participating in any short courses/symposiums/oral sessions/etc.?
A: Yes, LECO is presenting extensively with a focus on PFAS, pyrolysis oils, flavor/fragrance, and MOSH/MOAH (food safety). These sessions include:
- Identifying PFAS Chemicals in Consumer Anti-fog Product Solutions Using GC-TOFMS
- Mineral Oil: A Complete Hardware and Software Solution for Qualitative & Quantitative Analysis using GCxGC-TOFMS/FID
- Characterization and Quantitative Hydrocarbon Group-Type Analysis of Plastic-Derived Pyrolysis Oils by GCxGC-TOFMS/FID
- Application of a Novel Reverse-Fill-Flush Modulator and Splitter for Simultaneous GCxGC-TOFMS/FID Analysis of Synthetic Aviation Fuels
- Characterization and Comparison of Fresh vs. Dried Herbs with GC, GCxGC, and TOFMS
- Non-Target Characterization and Simultaneous Quantification for Reformulation of Complex Fragrance Samples with GCxGC-MS/FID
Q: Last year, there was an overwhelming focus on batteries, AI and PFAS technology at Pittcon. What do you think will be some of the most talked about topics this year?
A: I’m expecting lots of continued focus on these hot topics like PFAS and pyrolysis oils/recycled plastics. More specific to GCMS, I’m expecting some interesting work on high-resolution GCMS data processing. GCMS is coming back in vogue for discovery workflows, where quality spectra in tandem with high resolution info makes it a powerful but data-intensive tool.