ION SOURCE
TECHNOLOGY

The SICRIT® – Soft Io­niza­ti­on by Che­mi­cal Re­ac­tion In Trans­fer – Ion Source is an am­bi­ent flow-th­rough io­niza­ti­on tech­nology for mass spec­tro­me­ters with at­mo­sphe­ric pres­su­re in­let (LC-MS). The pro­cess of io­niza­ti­on is cru­cial for the ana­ly­sis of com­pounds in mass spec­tro­me­try, one of the most powerful tech­ni­ques in che­mi­cal ana­ly­sis. Io­niza­ti­on en­ables the mass spec­tro­me­ter to de­tect, cha­rac­te­ri­ze and quan­ti­fy sub­s­tances ba­sed on the mass-to-char­­­ge ra­tio (m/z) of their mole­cu­les.

SICRIT® logo with icon and wordmark "SICRIT® technology"

ION SOURCE
CHARACTERISTICS

Uni­que De­sign

SICRIT® is a plug and play source that is di­rect­ly cou­pled to the MS in­let. Neu­tral mole­cu­les are drawn th­rough the source into the MS by the pr­e­vai­ling va­cu­um. On their way into the sys­tem, they are io­ni­zed by a ring-shaped cold plas­ma, which can be for­med in any kind of car­ri­er gas, even in room air. Con­ven­tio­nal io­niza­ti­on sources are di­rec­ted towards the in­stru­ment and form ions in front of the MS in­let, which leads to sen­si­ti­vi­ty los­ses due to co­lum­bic re­pul­si­on. SICRIT® mi­ti­ga­tes tho­se los­ses due to a more ef­fi­ci­ent trans­fer of ions into the sys­tem, as the io­niza­ti­on di­rect­ly ta­kes place in the ex­ten­ded in­let ca­pil­la­ry.

Con­ven­tio­nal io­niza­ti­on

Graphic that shows how conventional ionization works before entering a mass spectrometer.

It is fun­da­men­tal­ly dif­fe­rent to con­ven­tio­nal io­niza­ti­on me­thods:
In al­most all con­ven­tio­nal io­niza­ti­on me­thods like ESI, DART, DESI or APCI, the ana­ly­te gets io­ni­zed be­fo­re be­ing in­tro­du­ced into the MS.

SICRIT® Io­niza­ti­on

Graphic that shows how the SICRIT® ionization works before entering the mass spectrometer.

The pa­ten­ted SICRIT® Ion Source Tech­no­lo­gy ex­tends the in­let of the MS and io­ni­zes all mole­cu­les that are drawn into the sys­tem due to the pr­e­vai­ling va­cu­um by me­ans of a spe­ci­al­ly shaped cold plas­ma.

Enhan­ced Ran­ge of Ana­lytes

Thanks to its uni­que de­sign, the SICRIT® ion source can io­ni­ze ana­lytes across the en­ti­re spec­trum from po­lar to non-po­lar, a task that would ty­pi­cal­ly re­qui­re th­ree se­pa­ra­te io­niza­ti­on tech­ni­ques.

  • At­mo­sphe­ric Pres­su­re Che­mi­cal Io­niza­ti­on:
    SICRIT® is ca­pa­ble to co­ver the io­niza­ti­on ran­ge of APCI with even less frag­men­ta­ti­on due its soft io­niza­ti­on me­cha­nism.

  • Elec­tron Im­pact Io­niza­ti­on:
    SICRIT® is ca­pa­ble to co­ver al­most (no re­si­du­al ga­ses like N2, O2, etc.) the who­le io­niza­ti­on ran­ge of EI with less frag­men­ta­ti­on due its soft io­niza­ti­on me­cha­nism.

  • Elec­t­ro Spray Io­niza­ti­on:
    Up to a m/z‑ratio of 2000, SICRIT® is ca­pa­ble to co­ver a gre­at part of the io­niza­ti­on ran­ge of ESI (ex­cept for lar­ge bio­mole­cu­les like pro­te­ins, etc.).

No Frag­men­ta­ti­on

SICRIT® is a very soft io­niza­ti­on me­cha­nism. The uni­que shape of the dielec­tric di­schar­ge pre­vents mole­cu­les from get­ting in touch with the cold plas­ma. This en­ables a soft io­niza­ti­on of ana­lytes which avo­ids frag­men­ta­ti­on. The struc­tu­ral in­for­ma­ti­on of the ions re­mains int­act.

Ul­ti­ma­te Ver­sa­ti­li­ty

Alt­hough SICRIT® is an am­bi­ent ion source, it can also be in­te­gra­ted into tra­di­tio­nal chro­ma­to­gra­phy and ima­ging ap­pli­ca­ti­ons. It is a mo­du­lar, ven­dor-in­de­pen­dent sys­tem com­pa­ti­ble with all LC-MS set­ups. In­stal­la­ti­on is quick and straight­for­ward, thanks to its plug-and-play func­tion­a­li­ty. SICRIT® en­ables a wide ran­ge of new ap­pli­ca­ti­ons, of­fe­ring un­mat­ched ver­sa­ti­li­ty and ef­fi­ci­en­cy in the mar­ket.

In­di­ca­ti­ve Com­pa­ri­son

ION SOURCE
ADVANTAGES

Icon that resembles two crossed tools and that stands for no sample preparation as one of the advantages of the SICRIT® Ion Source Technology

No sam­ple pre­pa­ra­ti­on

The am­bi­ent cha­rac­ter of the io­niza­ti­on source al­lows to ana­ly­ze so­lid, li­quid, or gas­eous samples in room air wi­t­hout sam­ple pre­pa­ra­ti­on (di­rect scree­ning).

Icon that resembles a puzzle just being completed and that stands for felxible coupling as one of the advantages of the SICRIT® Ion Source Technology

Fle­xi­ble cou­pling

SICRIT® Io­niza­ti­on Tech­no­lo­gy is the only tech­ni­que that pro­vi­des a seam­less cou­pling with all chro­ma­to­gra­phy me­thods like GC, LC and SFC.

Icon that resembles stacked coins and that stands for low operation costs as one of the advantages of the SICRIT® Ion Source Technology

Low ope­ra­ti­on cos­ts

SICRIT® does not re­qui­re He­li­um or other no­ble ga­ses for ope­ra­ti­on, it runs with am­bi­ent air and elec­tri­cal power.

Icon that resembles a play button and that stands for an easy installation & operation as one of the advantages of the SICRIT® Ion Source Technology

Easy in­stal­la­ti­on & ope­ra­ti­on

Plug & play ion source that does neither re­qui­re ca­li­bra­ti­on nor ad­ap­ti­ons on hard­ware, soft­ware, or work­flow.

Dis­co­ver all Lab Ap­pli­ca­ti­ons en­ab­led by the SICRIT® Ion Source Tech­no­lo­gy:

GC-MS and LC-MS Ana­ly­sis

Di­rect MS Ana­ly­sis

Ima­ging MS Ana­ly­sis

Know­ledge Base

Discover which ionization methods are typically used for the analysis of nitrosamines, the challenges that may arise, and a promising alternative.

By Io­niza­ti­on Only: De­tec­ting Ni­tros­ami­nes with Mass Spec­tro­me­try

Dis­co­ver which io­niza­ti­on me­thods are ty­pi­cal­ly used for the ana­ly­sis of ni­tros­ami­nes, the chal­lenges that may ari­se, and a pro­mi­sing al­ter­na­ti­ve.

Cat-Sicrit
Tech­no­lo­gy
Imagine a device that could analyze the molecular components of a sample by

Ima­gi­ne, Snif­fing Mole­cu­les

Ima­gi­ne a de­vice that could ana­ly­ze the mole­cu­lar com­pon­ents of a sam­ple by „snif­fing“ them. Read in this aric­le what Di­rect MS me­ans for re­se­arch and la­bo­ra­to­ries.

Cat-Sicrit
Tech­no­lo­gy