Where is China's chromatographic instrument?

On November 2-3, 2012, the China Summit Forum on Scientific Instruments, Equipment and Test Technology was held at the Beijing National Convention Center. The forum was divided into four major topics: spectroscopic instruments, mass spectrometry instruments, chromatographic instruments, and food safety detection technologies and instruments. The chromatographic instrument forum invited Professor Liu Huwei of Peking University, Professor Zhu Yan of Zhejiang University and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences Guan Yafeng. Researchers and other experts and scholars attended the meeting, and invited some high-level chromatograph instrument manufacturers to participate in the exchange. Guests at the conference gave presentations and discussions on the development trends of various types of chromatographic instruments, the comparison of domestic and overseas chromatographic instruments, and the future development strategies of domestic chromatographic instruments.

The meeting was chaired by Prof. Liu Huwei of Peking University. From the conference speeches, the chromatographic instruments have a common development trend, namely, they are developing in the direction of miniaturization, rapidity, high-throughput, multi-function, and other instruments, and they are based on type. Each type of instrument has its own characteristics. Although the demand for chromatographic instruments in the domestic market continues to grow and it is expected to become the world's largest buyer of chromatographic instruments, overall, there is still a gap between the innovation, performance, and durability of domestic chromatographic instruments and foreign brands. For domestic manufacturers, opportunities and challenges coexist.

Prof. Zhu Yan from Zhejiang University made a report on “Ion Chromatography Instrument Development Trends at Home and Abroad and Our Strategy”. The report introduced the development trend of ion chromatography: the application of ion chromatography has been gradually expanded, from a single environmental field to many fields, especially It is the life science that has become the focus of future development; the miniaturization of ion chromatography, capillary ion chromatography adapt to the development of the times stand out; the mating technology is maturing, and the combination of ion chromatography with mass spectrometry and atomic fluorescence becomes more and more common. In terms of the market, China's sales of ion chromatography ranks second in the world. Its annual growth rate ranks first in the world for ten years in a row. However, domestic production is dominated by small businesses. The grade and price of the equipment are low, and they lack competitiveness. At present, there are three original ion chromatographic technologies in China. We hope that the domestic ion chromatograph can redouble its efforts on this basis and develop a new type of ion chromatograph to surpass the international advanced level.

The report of Dr. Li Yu, Chairman and General Manager of Lianyi Lite Analysis Instrument Co., Ltd., was entitled “Research Report on the Development of High-performance Liquid Chromatography Instruments at Home and Abroad”. In the report, Dr. Li analyzed the development trend of dual-polarization presented by liquid chromatography in recent years: Larger and larger, the development of chromatographs has become large-scale, industrialized, and the smaller the smaller, the analytical liquid phase has begun to develop portable and chip types. Multidimensional separation and LC/MS are also trends in development. Dr. Li believes that the demand for liquid phase in the domestic market is still very large. Although there are many liquid chromatograph manufacturers in the country, they are small in scale and weak in technology. Most of them stay at the level of imitation imported instruments, thus lacking competitiveness and facing occupation. Importers who start high-end markets and expand into low-end and middle-end markets are not optimistic.

The presentation title of Ms. Lin Xuezhi, application center of Zhejiang Fuli Analytical Instrument Co., Ltd., was "Investigation Report on Development of Gas Chromatography Instruments at Home and Abroad". The report analyzed the development of the gas chromatograph and the market conditions. It is believed that the number of domestic sales of domestic gas chromatographs accounted for more than 60% of the domestic market. The domestic high-end gas chromatograph has also made initial progress. Even some domestically produced instruments have reached the world's advanced level. , and introduced the development of the company in gas chromatography.

Dr. Li Shengying, general manager of Jiangsu Hanbang Technology Co., Ltd., made a report on the development of supercritical fluid chromatography instruments at home and abroad. Dr. Li Shengying introduced the basic principles and development history of supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) in the report. It should be said that SFC is complementary to gas chromatography and liquid chromatography, and it is highly efficient, rapid, and environmentally friendly, but it is currently used infrequently. There is still no commercialization in China. Therefore, there is still a long way to go for the development of domestic SFC.

Shanghai Jiaotong University professor/Shanghai Tong Micro Analysis Technology Co., Ltd. Chairman Yan Chao's report entitled "Investigation Report on Capillary Electrophoresis and Electrochromatography Development at Home and Abroad". The report details the principles, classification, development, application and commercialization of capillary electrophoresis technology. Although the global market share of capillary electrophoresis is less than US$200 million, capillary electrophoresis has been widely used in proteomics, metabolomics, and traditional Chinese medicine fingerprinting, due to its high column efficiency, high resolution, high selectivity, and low solvent consumption. And in our country has a certain development basis, I believe there will be a broader future.

Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Guan Yafeng researcher made a report on Progress in Microchromatography Instruments. The report is divided into two parts: the micro GC and the miniaturization of liquid chromatography. The miniaturization of gas and liquid instruments and their related technologies are analyzed. Integration and chip is one of the ideas for miniaturization. It is also considered that other technologies can be used in the miniaturization process to help chromatographic instruments solve problems such as repeatability and stability.

Professor Fang Qun, the director of the Institute of Microanalysis Systems of Zhejiang University, reported on the "Research Report on the Development of Microfluidic Instruments at Home and Abroad". The report mainly introduces the development course of microfluidic technology, the application fields and the prospects for the future. As a technology, microfluidics has been widely used in capillary electrophoresis, PCR and other instruments. Up to now, there are fewer than 240 manufacturers of microfluidics in the world, and they are still in the initial stage. There are no industry standards and they are difficult to develop. However, it is believed that with the continuous expansion of market demand and the continuous development of related technologies, microfluidics The industrialization of technology will soon come.

Dr. Wang Qunjie, general manager of Bona Ejer Technology Co., Ltd. made a report on the "Technology Development Trends and Strategies of Liquid Chromatographic Separation Materials and Columns." The system introduced the development of liquid chromatography packing, the main manufacturers and the technical means adopted. From the silica matrix to the polymer matrix, from large particle size to sub-2-micron, from increased purity to bonded polar groups, every development of chromatographic packing solves a large number of practical problems and drives the continuous development of chromatographic instruments. . In the column market, there are many importers, and domestic brands need to be improved in terms of performance and influence. Dr. Wang also put forward his own idea at the end of the report: It is recommended that a unified column naming standard be established to allow users to understand the information of the column and regulate the entire column market.

Application Development The research topic of Zhang Lihua, a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is entitled “Progress in Liquid Chromatography and Prospects for the Development of High-end Instruments”. The report describes the current development of liquid chromatography in three aspects: liquid chromatography packing, liquid chromatography separation system, and LC/MS ion source. In terms of chromatographic packing, Liang Xinyi's researcher has made breakthroughs in the research of the spherical silica matrix and Zou Hanfa's researcher in the overall material matrix. The performance of the column using the new matrix is ​​superior to that of similar products in the market. On the separation system, Zhang Lihua, Xu Guowang, Zhang Xiangmin and many other researchers have tried multi-dimensional analysis, achieved good results, and saved costs. In addition, the report also introduced the newly developed “closed and adjustable atmosphere electrospray ionization source” developed by Zhejiang Haochuang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. The ion source placed the exit end of the emission needle at the stagnation point, so that the properties of the Taylor cone were not improved. Affected by the outside air flow, the stability of the ion flow is improved.

Zhang Qinghua, a researcher at the Ecological Environment Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, made a report titled "Application of Chromatography Mass Spectrometry in the Analysis of Dioxins." In addition to the high-resolution GC/MS used in the analysis of dioxin, the report also introduced other chromatographic techniques involved in dioxin analysis and some discussion of sample preparation techniques. At present, the most sensitive analytical dioxin sensitivity is double-focus magnetic mass spectrometry, and other instruments are not yet replaceable. The current state-of-the-art technology in our country is difficult to meet the requirements, but the pre-treatment part of the clean gel permeation chromatograph technology is relatively simple. The Academy’s Eco-Environmental Center has also begun to conduct joint research and development with domestic production companies, and is expected to commercialize the market in the future to fill the domestic gap.

Prof. Zhang Xinxiang from Peking University made a report on "CE-MS High-Sensitivity Analytical Techniques for Micro-Samples". The report makes a detailed comparison of the performance of liquid-phase and capillary electrophoresis, and discusses in detail the technical details when combining capillary electrophoresis with mass spectrometry. It describes the feasibility and advantages of CE-MS in combination, and proposes an improved interface between them. Some of the feasibility methods.