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Can Your Q-TOF...Keep Pace with Your Needs?
Afford what you've been missing
Ready to experience what an Orbitrap-based high-resolution accurate-mass LCMS can do? For a limited time save when you purchase a new Q Exactive MS series system. Take advantage of this special offer and start enjoying all the benefits of Orbitrap HRAM MS in your laboratory.
If you're performing routine, small-molecule analyses for environmental, food safety, clinical research, forensic toxicology, or metabolomics, it may be time to can your Q-TOF and switch to Orbitrap MS technology.
When was the last time…
- Your capital budget got bigger?
- Lab instrumentation got less expensive?
- Your workload got lighter?
- Your deadlines got longer?
- Your analytical requirements got less stringent?
To keep pace with the increasing demands of a modern laboratory, you need innovative solutions that give you more for your money. Can your Q-TOF? If not, consider the alternatives.
The Thermo Scientific™ Q Exactive™ MS and Thermo Scientific™ Q Exactive™ Focus MS offer:
- Mass stability to maintain calibration all day…even weeks, depending on the sample
- Selectivity required to do quantitative and qualitative analysis on one platform
- Market leading resolution, see more peaks in your samples and with less effort resolve with certainty what you may be missing in your most complex samples
- Remarkable scan-to-scan mass accuracy for confident identification
- High scan speeds compatible with UHPLC
The Q Exactive value equation
If Value = Performance/Price
And Price(Q Exactive) = Price(Q-TOF)
And Performance(Q Exactive) > Performance(Q-TOF)
Then Value(Q Exactive) > Value(Q-TOF)
You don’t always get what you pay for…sometimes you get more!
Testimonial
"The Q Exactive Focus mass spectrometer will rapidly become your gold standard because this single technology will answer your routine, quantitative and research analytical demands at an affordable price."
Dr. Bertrand Rochat
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois
Lausanne, Switzerland
Whitepaper: From Triple Quadrupoles and Q-TOF to Orbitrap HRMS
Success stories from Orbitrap users
Learn how customers are using Q Exactive MS systems to solve analytical challenges and improve lab performance.
See what the Q Exactive MS can do
Top 10 reasons to consider a Q Exactive Focus over a Q-TOF
| Feature | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Excellent linear dynamic range with Automatic Gain Control (AGC) at high and low concentrations |
|
| Variable resolving power |
|
| No trade-off between resolution and sensitivity |
|
| Minimum scan-to-scan variance |
|
| Mass stability and mass accuracy |
|
| Fast polarity switching |
|
| Easy to use, a plug-and-play device |
|
| Small footprint, truly a benchtop mass spectrometer |
|
| Orbitrap is the detector |
|
| Single mechanical pump |
|
Reduce false positives and false negatives with Orbitrap’s high resolution power
- Carbofuran is not identified at 17.5K resolution whereas formetanate is identified with poor mass accuracy
- Carbofuran and formetanate are both identified at high mass accuracy due to the Q Exactive Focus MS true high resolution of 70K at low m/z
- Data generated using a Q Exactive Focus MS
Obtain fine isotopic pattern and assign elemental composition with confidence and accuracy
- Resolution of isotopes in endogenous metabolites
- With the mass accuracy and resolution at 70K of the Q Exactive Focus MS, it is possible to separate isotopes 34S from 13C2. At a lower resolution of 35K, these isotopes would not be resolved.
Don't struggle to meet LOQs, lower them
- No need to recalibrate every injection—just calibrate every 24 hours or as needed!
- Great quantitation performance with up to 6 orders of dynamic range (depending on sample)
- Sub-ng/mL quantitation of thiabendazole
Full scan MS/MS quantitation in the Q Exactive.
Above we see (1) precursor ions isolated in the quadrupole which then (2) pass to the Higher-energy Collision Dissociation (HCD) cell for fragmentation followed by (3) HRAM measurement in the Orbitrap. This provides (4) MS/MS identification of the compound and (5) quantitation based on creating accurate mass extracted ion chromatograms from the target compounds.
Other modes of quantitation
1. PRM (Parallel Reaction Monitoring)
- Scheduled target list (Rt, m/z, collision energy)
- Post-acquisition—extracted ion chromatograms of parent (fragment transitions acquired)
- Robust sensitivity and selectivity even in highly complex matrices
2. Full Scan MS/ddMS2 (data dependent MS2)
- Post-acquisition—extracted ion chromatograms of parent ions of interest
- Relies on high resolution for selectivity
- Useful for less complex background
- No method development/preparation needed
3. t-SIM (targeted SIM)/ddMS2
- Post-acquisition—extracted ion chromatograms of parent ions of interest
- Scheduled target list (Rt, m/z)
- Powerful in medium complexity matrix
- Simple method development (e.g., pre-define parent ions, window width)
Calibrate once, use it for 24 hours or as needed
- Data show a one-time calibration on a Q Exactive MS with sub-ppm mass accuracy for 900 injections over more than 100 hours
Achieve scan-to-scan mass accuracy
- Sub-ppm mass accuracy per scan for the detection of Carbaryl
- Scan speed fast enough to acquire 18 scans across a 5 second peak at resolution 70,000
- RMS = 0.62 ppm or 620 ppb across the peak
Top 10 reasons to consider a Q Exactive Focus over a Q-TOF
| Feature | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Excellent linear dynamic range with Automatic Gain Control (AGC) at high and low concentrations |
|
| Variable resolving power |
|
| No trade-off between resolution and sensitivity |
|
| Minimum scan-to-scan variance |
|
| Mass stability and mass accuracy |
|
| Fast polarity switching |
|
| Easy to use, a plug-and-play device |
|
| Small footprint, truly a benchtop mass spectrometer |
|
| Orbitrap is the detector |
|
| Single mechanical pump |
|
Reduce false positives and false negatives with Orbitrap’s high resolution power
- Carbofuran is not identified at 17.5K resolution whereas formetanate is identified with poor mass accuracy
- Carbofuran and formetanate are both identified at high mass accuracy due to the Q Exactive Focus MS true high resolution of 70K at low m/z
- Data generated using a Q Exactive Focus MS
Obtain fine isotopic pattern and assign elemental composition with confidence and accuracy
- Resolution of isotopes in endogenous metabolites
- With the mass accuracy and resolution at 70K of the Q Exactive Focus MS, it is possible to separate isotopes 34S from 13C2. At a lower resolution of 35K, these isotopes would not be resolved.
Don't struggle to meet LOQs, lower them
- No need to recalibrate every injection—just calibrate every 24 hours or as needed!
- Great quantitation performance with up to 6 orders of dynamic range (depending on sample)
- Sub-ng/mL quantitation of thiabendazole
Full scan MS/MS quantitation in the Q Exactive.
Above we see (1) precursor ions isolated in the quadrupole which then (2) pass to the Higher-energy Collision Dissociation (HCD) cell for fragmentation followed by (3) HRAM measurement in the Orbitrap. This provides (4) MS/MS identification of the compound and (5) quantitation based on creating accurate mass extracted ion chromatograms from the target compounds.
Other modes of quantitation
1. PRM (Parallel Reaction Monitoring)
- Scheduled target list (Rt, m/z, collision energy)
- Post-acquisition—extracted ion chromatograms of parent (fragment transitions acquired)
- Robust sensitivity and selectivity even in highly complex matrices
2. Full Scan MS/ddMS2 (data dependent MS2)
- Post-acquisition—extracted ion chromatograms of parent ions of interest
- Relies on high resolution for selectivity
- Useful for less complex background
- No method development/preparation needed
3. t-SIM (targeted SIM)/ddMS2
- Post-acquisition—extracted ion chromatograms of parent ions of interest
- Scheduled target list (Rt, m/z)
- Powerful in medium complexity matrix
- Simple method development (e.g., pre-define parent ions, window width)
Calibrate once, use it for 24 hours or as needed
- Data show a one-time calibration on a Q Exactive MS with sub-ppm mass accuracy for 900 injections over more than 100 hours
Achieve scan-to-scan mass accuracy
- Sub-ppm mass accuracy per scan for the detection of Carbaryl
- Scan speed fast enough to acquire 18 scans across a 5 second peak at resolution 70,000
- RMS = 0.62 ppm or 620 ppb across the peak
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