ICON Scientific offers a complete line of on-line degassers. On-line degassers can be interfaced to pumps used for HPLC, uHPLC and FPLC systems. On-line degassers are used as the front end of a low-pressure mixing system minimizing outgassing thereby reducing chromatographic issues.
High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is the gold standard in analytical and preparative chemistry. Liquid chromatography systems pump solvents or buffers through the system enabling the compounds of interest to be separated and identified. HPLC is a powerful and very precise technique that has broad applications throughout many fields. HPLC is used to identify and provide quantitative analysis of any drug or compound, detect metabolites, and separate and purify compounds of interest. HPLC is commonly used in food and beverage quality control, clinical, forensic, environmental water purification and for quality control in pharmaceutical drug development.
High Performance liquid chromatography involves pumping buffers or solvents into a fluid stream. It is critically important that bubbles and gases are removed prior to entering the fluid stream. The most efficient and cost-effective method to accomplish this is membrane degassing. ICON Scientific offers a full range of membrane degassers that can handle analytical flow rates up to 1 liter.
Degassing removes dissolved gas from fluids before they outgas, reducing the chance of bubble formation. On-line degassing is an essential technique when doing HPLC, uHPLC, FPLC, ion chromatography and HPLC mass spec.
On-line degassing is valuable because it replaces helium sparging, improves quantitative analysis and eliminates bubble formation which creates problems for HPLC, uHPLC and FPLC systems.
OUTGASSING
“Outgassing” is a term used to describe dissolved gases emitted from a solution. Outgassing occurs in HPLC systems when rough surfaces produce nucleation sites for bubbles to form. Outgassing occurs anytime gases dissolve into a solvent or buffer and cause bubbles to form in pumps and detectors. Bubbles entering the HPLC system will get trapped in the detector flow cell sending spurious signals to the detector. Bubble formation in a flow cell that is caused by outgassing will create false peaks and noisy baselines. Outgassing disrupts the column bed in FPLC ruining the separation process.
High- and Low-Pressure Mixing
There are two ways to create a gradient in HPLC. There are low-pressure and high-pressure gradients.
A low-pressure gradient, sometimes called a ternary or quaternary gradient, is when the mixing occurs with a low- pressure proportioning valve. The proportioning valve is placed prior to the liquid entry to the pump. This type of gradient formation is called low pressure because the mixing takes place on the low-pressure side of the pump. Outgassing negatively affects gradient formation because the proportioning valves are time based and cannot distinguish whether liquid or air bubbles are being pumped. Low pressure mixing systems are more prone to bubble formation.
High pressure mixing is sometimes referred to is a binary gradient system. High pressure mixing occurs when the gradient formation is produced by two pumps controlling the relative rate of pump A verses pump B to produce a constant flow rate. In high pressure mixing the mixing occurs after the pumps and takes place in the mixing chamber. High pressure mixing is less prone to outgassing because in this configuration each solvent has its own pump, and the mixing takes place after the pumps. Bubble formation can likely be the cause of many performance issues with both high- and low-pressure mixing.
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The Solution
Degassers are the solution to removing dissolved gases from fluids before they outgas. Once bubbles are formed, they affect the precision, accuracy, and performance of your chromatography system. Degassing will prevent the formation of problem causing bubbles. Using a degasser will improve precision and reliability and avoid production disruptions or delays. Our degassers optimize the performance of HPLC, uHPLC and FPLC systems.
Benefits of Degassers
- Prevent bubble formation
- Efficiently removes dissolved gas from fluid streams
- Improve baseline stability
- Reduce noise
- Reduce start-up times
- Reduce errors by removing gas
- Ensure accurate and constant results
- Improves and optimizes all applications (analytical, biotech or diagnostic)
DUAL FILM DEGASSERS
ICON Scientific has introduced a line of HPLC degassers utilizing patented dual film degasser chambers. Our degassers have the highest efficiency with the lowest pressure drop in the industry. ICON’s degassers are compatible with most HPLC solvents and are biocompatible for FPLC as well.
Our thin film degasser uses a high-efficiency dual membrane and unique flow channel design. Like ICON’s other products, the iPLANAR degasser has a tiny footprint. The iPLANAR offers better performance and the lowest fluidic resistance in the industry. The iPLANAR on-line degasser modules employ proprietary technology. We incorporate a flat membrane on both sides of the cassette to provide maximum surface area with minimal volume. The efficiency is optimized by precisely controlling its thickness to ensure maximum degassing efficiency. The membrane has a high gas permeability therefore optimizing vacuum degassing and providing continuous, efficient gas removal, regardless of flow rate, ICON’s iPLANAR degasser provides dramatic improvement in performance over tube-based degassers. iPLANAR’s advantages include:
- Lowest pressure drop compared to tube-based degasser due extremely low flow restriction
- Bio inert metal free flow path providing virtually universal HPLC solvent compatibility as well as FPLC buffer systems
- NO internal fittings so NO risk of internal leakage
- Higher surface areas
- Highest efficiency degassing
- Lowest internal volumes
- Superior bubble removal and faster pull-down times
- Analytical to semi-prep
- Dual flow plates sandwiched between two vacuum plates coated with Teflon™ AF thin films
- Option of two different size cartridges depending on desired flow rate.
- OEM configurations available
ICON Scientific, Inc
