Electronic laboratory equipment costs

Electric tube furnaces of appropriate dimensions are available from various manufacturers. A model RO 4/25 by Heraeus GmbH, Hanau, FRG is suitable. However, a very satisfactory furnace can be built by any well equipped laboratory workshop at little cost and effort. The material required consists of thin walled ceramic tubing, 3.5 cm i.d., nichrome resistance wire, heat resistant insulation, and ordinary hardware material. A technical drawing will be provided by the submitters upon request. The temperature of the furnace can be adjusted by an electronic temperature controller using a thermocouple sensor. A 1.5 kW-Variac transformer and any high temperature thermometer would do as well for the budget-minded chemist. 

Since they were first invented the size and cost of scanning electron microscopes has come down considerably, the time for sample preparation has been shortened, and other complications of the procedure have been reduced. Today, relatively low priced desk top microscopes are available and many scientific or corporate laboratories are equipped with larger units so that this technology is accessible to almost everyone. 

The main obstacle to the widespread use of microfiuidics in conjunction with MS is related to the fabrication of such systems. It still requires a considerable effort and costly equipment. Implementation of microchips often necessitates expert knowledge about the device assembly, maintenance, and trouble-shooting. However, the rapidly expanding 3D printing tools, and open-source electronic modules, can cut the costs of fabrication and promote the use of microfiuidic devices in kinetic studies conducted with MS detectors. We anticipate that, in the near future, a microscale total analysis system (pTAS) combining microfiuidics and miniature mass spectrometers will become an omnipresent piece of the laboratory toolkit. 

In terms of the hardware, TRMS methods described in this book use most common types of ion sources and analyzers. Electrospray ionization (ESI), electron ionization (El), atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), or photoionization systems, and their modified versions, are all widely used in TRMS measurements. The newly developed atmospheric pressure ionization schemes such as desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) and Venturi easy ambient sonic-spray ionization (V-EASI) have already found applications in this area. Mass analyzers constitute the biggest and the most costly part of MS hardware. Few laboratories can afford purchasing different types of mass spectrometers for use in diverse applications. Therefore, the choice of mass spectrometer for TRMS is not always dictated by the optimum specifications of the instrument but its availability. Fortunately, many real-time measurements can be conducted using different mass analyzers equipped with atmospheric pressure inlets - with better or worse results. For example, triple quadrupole mass spectrometers excel at quantitative capabilities however, in many cases, popular ion trap (IT)-MS instruments can be used instead. On the other hand, applications of TRMS in fundamental studies often require a particular type of instrument (e.g., Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer for photodissociation studies on trapped ions). 

It should be pointed out here that there is a tendency more and more often in modern electronic Instrumentation to make use of hybrid analog, customized digital circuits, EPROMs, PALs and other programmable chips, to achieve higher packing densities, better overall performance, and to reduce production cost. It will not be possible, even in a very well-equipped laboratory, to have all these special spare parts available in a stockroom. Fortunately, the failure rate of such components is low. These spare parts have to be ordered from the manufacturer of the instrument or its representative and are not available from the semiconductor manu facturer. 

---