Sandy Bay Campus, Chemistry Building, Level 2, Rooms 251
Contact: Dr David Nichols (Research Fellow and Officer in charge)
New for 2026: The CSL is excited to announce a new High Resolution Gas Chomatograph / Quadrupole Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer will be available from late 2025.
In 2023 the CSL commissioned a new Cyclic Ion Mobility Quadrupole Time of Flight (QTOF) Mass Spectrometer integrated with Desorption Electrospray Ionisation (DESI) Imaging capability and is also coupled to the latest technology in ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography. This new technology enables the visualisation, spatial mapping and quantification of organic molecules within complex biological tissue with greater sensitivity and accuracy than previously possible. This instrument system is only the second of its kind in Australia, and this leap in technology is especially exciting for plant hormone research, quantitative metabolomics and lipidomics, and chiral and isomer analysis applications.
A Bruker-300 triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, installed in 2011, provides excellent GC/MS/MS capabilities. A Waters Acquity UPLC-Xevo triple quadrupole MS instrument, installed in 2010, has ESI, APCI and ASAP ionisation modes, as well as Diode Array UV-Vis and ELSD detection. The facility has recently been upgraded with a Thermo Scientific LTQ Orbitrap high resolution tandem mass spectrometer, which provides accurate mass analysis capability for both targeted and untargeted metabolomics.
These instruments are used for research in disciplines such as botany, forestry, agronomy, microbiology, chemistry, pharmacology, environmental science, immunology and zoology.
Current applications include characterisation of synthetic compounds and natural products via mass spectra and accurate mass measurements, identification and quantitation of plant hormones at low ppb levels, polar and non-polar lipid analyses, identification and quantitation of plant pigments, insect and mammalian pheromone research, and pesticide residue determinations in essential oils and plant extracts. Biomedical applications include chiral analysis and separations, metabolic fate of drugs and other xenobiotics, antibiotic and other drug assays.
Many mainland Universities and other external clients regularly use this facility which has an established national reputation.
