Mass Spectrometry

Welcome to the Mass Spectrometry Laboratory of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Zürich. We offer MS analysis of pure, complex, volatile or biological samples using a variety of chromatographic and ionization methods. We also support research projects, sample preparation procedures and offer contract analyses in various fields, such as the elucidation of unknown structures, polymer characterization, quantification, analysis of complex mixtures, principal component analyses (PCA), or metabolomics. Most of the mass spectra are collected on four instruments: Direct exposure probe and GC-MS (DFS, Thermo Scientific), UHPLC-MS equipped with ESI or APCI (timsTOF Pro, Bruker / Vanquish, Thermo Scientific and QExactive and Ultimate 3000, Thermo Scientific), and MALDI-TOF (Autoflex Speed, Bruker). The high-resolution DFS, timsTOF Pro, and QExactive instruments allow acquisition of accurate masses below 2 ppm and calculation of chemical formulas. With these instruments, molecular masses and concentrations of (bio)-molecules can be determined, and structural information obtained by collision induced dissociation experiments (MS/MS). We also offer the determination of element concentrations by ICP-MS (Agilent 8800 triple quadrupole). The method is used for its ability to detect metals and several non-metallic elements in liquid samples at very low concentrations. It can trace different isotopes of the same or different elements simultaneously.

Samples for elemental analyses (C, H, N and, optionally, O, S, and halogenides) can be submitted and will be measured by Mobias, the ETHZ’s analytics platform.

For further information, please contact:

Prof. Dr. Laurent Bigler

Department of Chemistry
University of Zurich
Winterthurerstr. 190
CH-8057 Zurich
Switzerland

Room Nr.: 38 G 10
Fone:    ++41-44-635 42 86
Fax:      ++41-44-635 68 12
Email:   Laurent Bigler