This document compares the Agilent 6540 UHD Q-TOF and Thermo LTQ Orbitrap XL for fast UHPLC applications and concludes that the Agilent 6540 UHD Q-TOF provides superior resolution. The system offers up to ten-fold better resolving power than the Thermo LTQ Orbitrap XL and is suitable for laboratories requiring improved sample analysis speed and accurate mass analysis.
This document presents a technical comparison between the Agilent 6540 Ultra High Definition (UHD) Accurate-Mass Q-TOF LC/MS system and the Thermo Scientific LTO Orbitrap XL. It focuses on the performance of the Agilent system when used at high data acquisition rates required for fast Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC) analyses.
The study demonstrates that the Agilent 6540 UHD Q-TOF maintains high resolution even at very high acquisition rates, whereas the Thermo LTQ Orbitrap XL resolution drops precipitously as acquisition speeds increase. The document concludes that the Agilent system delivers up to ten-fold better resolving power than the Orbitrap XL for this specific application, while maintaining sensitivity, dynamic range, mass accuracy, and isotopic fidelity.
The minimum acceptable number of data points across a peak is 10 to 12.
At 5 spectra/second, the Thermo LTO Orbitrap XL resolution drops below 10,000 over the examined mass range.
At 5 spectra/second, the resolution is only about 4000 at m/z values around 1800.