We are spending more than the cost of the service contract every year on buying 'zero air' cylinders for the electrospray sheath gas. We have the 5600 and 6600 with NanoSpray III sources. We also already have a separate dewar on the loading dock where we buy bulk liquid nitrogen for the collision cell gas, and I was wondering if we could just use that gas also for the sheath of the electrospray (ESI) source? Does anyone use nitrogen for their sheath? and/or know and papers that compare these? Otherwise, is anyone using a zero air generator with their mass spec?
We use zero air generated on site for our 5600 and 6600 systems. Prior to that, we were using nitrogen only. Curiously enough, we went to zero air to save money. We have not noticed any difference at all from the switch to zero air from nitrogen, so I’d doubt you’d see any difference with the opposite move. Sciex recommends either nitrogen or zero air for the various connections, so you can be further assured the change will have no effect.
We have used both, and they both work just fine. Just make sure that it is hydrocarbon free (zero grade air or N2)
Likewise, We used nitrogen for a long time on the nanospray III source, and didn't really see any difference on either the 5600+ or 6600. Since switched to microspray and the Duospray source. I vaguely remember an engineer mentioning it could increase arcing as it was installed on N2, but it wasn't anything that came up again or caused an issue over 3+ years.
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