Shimadzu Scientific Instruments Inc articles

Soil contains a large amount of organic matter such as plant residue that can be decomposed by microorganisms. This organic matter plays a key role in plant growth by maintaining good chemical and physical conditions in soil and is useful in improving and stabilizing the productivity of agricultural crops. Compost, a type of fertilizer in which organic matter is decomposed by microorganisms, improves the condition of soil by supplying diverse substances and has
the function of impro

The test method presented here is applicable to the determination of mono-, di-, and tri-plus aromatic hydrocarbon (MAH, DAH, and T+AH, respectively) content in diesel fuels and middle distillates with boiling points in the range of 150° to 400° C in accordance with ASTM D6591. The accurate determination of the aromatic content of fuels is critical to assessing their quality and combustion characteristics. These parameters are also crucial to ensuring compliance with environmental regulatio

The EPA has established a Lifetime Drinking Water Health Advisory of 15 ppb for perchlorate to reduce health risks. More than 10 states in U.S. have established heath advisory levels for perchlorate in drinking water ranging from 1 to 18 ppb; for example, California and Maryland have proposed standards of 6 ppb and 1 ppb, respectively. A few quantitative methods for perchlorate have been developed by the U.S. EPA. Method 332.0 is one of the most sensitive methods using suppressed anion chroma

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establishes strict BFB tuning criteria to ensure the quality of the results when analyzing volatile compounds. Due to many challenges inherent to GC-MS Purge and Trap instruments required for this analysis, several GC-MS instruments have difficulties in passing the required US EPA BFB tuning criteria or remaining stable over prolonged operations period. In this study, the performance of a novel BFB tuning algorithm was demonstrated on the latest Shima

Haloacetic acids (HAAs) are known carcinogens that may occur as disinfection byproducts in drinking water. Currently five HAAs are regulated under the Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule (DBPR) and occurrence of four more HAAs is being monitored under the Unregulated Contaminant Rule 4 (2018-2020) 1. Whether the targets are HAA5 or HAA9, this analysis will continue to be performed regularly in environmental labs. Helium is specified as the carrier gas in EPA method 552, com

The UP Series of top-loading balances from Shimadzu Scientific Instruments (SSI) provide the fastest response performance in their class. Advanced digital control technology enables the high-speed weighing capability of these top-loading balances and significantly improves operational efficiency.

Consisting of 24 models with weighing capacity ranging from 220 g to 8200 g, the UP series balances shorten display response times when weighing trace quantities to about one

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are currently of great public health and environmental concern. Because PFAS are ubiquitous and commonly used in materials routinely employed for chemical analysis, laboratories are in need of streamlined protocols to minimize background contamination from these chemicals and quickly generate accurate data. This ebook outlines best practices, from the field to the bench, for achieving those goals. It includes information related to collecting samples

USEPA method 608 is a GC-ECD method to determine Aroclor and organochlorine pesticides. This method requires the use of second column for confirming the detected compounds due to the low selectivity of the ECD detector compared with GC-MS/MS. Also pattern recognition is required for accurate identification of Aroclors. A triple quadrupole GC-MS/MS based method offers a solution for the GC-ECD method’s drawbacks by providing high selective analysis. In addition, the type and concent

Pollution by marine debris including microplastics has become a serious environmental problem, and scientists all over the world are exploring its status by carrying out a survey on microplastics accumulated in marine species. The effects of marine debris have spread through the food chain to marine species such as polar cod living in the Arctic Ocean and deepwater shrimp (order Amphipoda) living at depth, which should have been hard for the impact of pollution to reach. Moreover, microp

There is increasing concern about the persistence and effects of Per- and Polyfluorinated Alkyl Substances (PFAS) in the environment. This white paper summarizes the state-of-the-art analytical methods for monitoring PFAS and demonstrates the use, speed and performance of Shimadzu Ultra-fast Mass Spectrometry (UFMS) for PFAS analysis in environmental waters. The described method consists of a simple methanol dilution, followed by a direct injection to LC-MS/MS. The Triple Quadrupole MS, LCMS-