Chromatographers who learned their craft twenty years ago may not have been familiar with autosamplers then, but today nearly every high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) instrument includes an autosampler as standard equipment.
“Autosamplers existed in the early days of HPLC but many scientists preferred manual injection,” notes Simon Robinson, HPLC product manager at Shimadzu Scientific Instruments (Columbia, MD). When sample was plentiful, manual injection was a convenient way to flush the injection loop between runs, an operation most easily accomplished (at the time) by hand.
But the main reason most lab workers preferred manual injection was that early autosamplers were not very reliable. Robinson recalls horror stories where analysts set up a tray of twenty labile samples or so, then returned the next day to find the instrument stuck on sample number two and all the remaining samples “wrecked.” However, “There’s been so much engineering focused on improving these instruments that it’s safe to say autosamplers are 100 percent reliable,” Robinson adds.
Autosamplers spare lab analysts from uninteresting, repetitive work. Even more time is saved when they are coupled with robotic sample preparation. Their major contributions to HPLC are reproducibility, repeatability, precision, and accuracy in delivering precise injection volumes.
So who would not routinely use an autosampler? According to Robinson, academic labs still rely heavily on manual sampling and injection because their primary objective, aside from data quality, is cost-effectiveness.
Another area where autosamplers are often impractical, observes Helmut Schulenberg-Schell, Ph.D., worldwide LC marketing manager for Agilent Technologies (Waldbronn, Germany), is in preparative HPLC. Prep work tends to be specialized, one-off, non-routine, and does not require the sensitivity or accuracy of analytical HPLC.
Autosamplers provide a level of automation, throughput, and productivity that is multiplicative. Using an autosampler, one chromatographer can operate multiple HPLC systems simultaneously, injecting many hundreds of samples after spending just a few minutes with the control software. This frees workers to perform other tasks like making mobile phases or analyzing data.
Speed, throughput, and reduced sample volumes are critical for most analytical laboratories, and autosamplers play prominently among the various “fast” techniques adopted toward achieving those goals. Autosamplers have become critical enablers—like columns, pumps, and detectors—of these trends, and in doing their part they have required substantial re-engineering for both stand-alone performance and integration. As such, autosamplers have been a primary target of engineering efforts to shorten cycle times vs. simply run times. After all, an HPLC or UPLC system does not add much in the way of throughput or speed in reducing analysis time if the slowest link in the cycle still requires several minutes to re-equilibrate.
The wider adoption of UHPLC underscores the “need for speed” and the role of autosamplers within that scheme. “Now, suddenly,” says Schulenberg-Schell, “you can run ten times as many samples on an HPLC instrument, and the question of automation in sampling, injection, sample prep, and sample tracking becomes more urgent.”
Recently Released HPLC Autosamplers
1290 Infinity LC System
- Features the first high-throughput sample injection modules to provide 1290 Infinity LC pressure capability at 1200 bar
- Extends sample capacity to 24 cooled microwell plates or 648 cooled 2-mL vials
- Allows for ultra-fast injection times of less than 5 seconds without compromising carryover
Agilent
www.agilent.com
Model 758 Liquid Autosampler
- Provides all the essential automated sample analysis capabilities, such as bubble elimination, syringe washes, and controlled injection speed for a wide variety of viscosities
- Available in 100V, 115V, and 230V configurations and contains a 110-position tray
- Syringe holder can support 10, 25, or 100 μL syringe sizes
PAC
www.paclp.com
Flexar
- Injects sample volumes as little as 1 μL at pressures up to 15,000 psi with the FX UHPLC autosampler
- Loads sample in only 8 seconds (in partial fill mode)
- Three injection modes: full loop, partial fill and μL-pickup with no sample waste
- Peltier cooling/heating mode option for operation at 4°C to 40°C. Will reach with 4°C ± 2°C achievable even at ambient temperatures up to 25°C
PerkinElmer
www.perkinelmer.com
UHPLC-SA LC Set
- Offers extended features and enhanced UHPLC performance for the compact, stackable Alias™ autosampler and SPH1240 pumpset
- Alias autosampler provides an injection volume from 1 to 10000 μL
- The autosampler’s efficient, multi-solvent needle wash virtually eliminates carry-over
- Handles two high or low well plates or 48 (2 x 48) sample vials
Spark Holland
www.sparkholland.com