Resources

The recording of our Orbion Launch Webinar presented by Aleksei Shcherbinin and H.J. Jost is now available for on-demand viewing. This 45-minute session introduces Orbion, Karsa’s fully integrated High-Resolution Multi-Pressure Chemical Ionization mass spectrometer (HR-MPCIMS) platform for air and environmental analysis.

Organonitrates play a pivotal role in atmospheric chemistry: they regulate the NOₓ budget, drive secondary organic aerosol formation, and act as reservoirs for long-range nitrogen transport. Measuring these compounds at ultra-trace levels in humid, chemically complex air remains a significant analytical challenge.

Karsa researchers, together with partners in Helsinki and Tampere, have published in Analytical Chemistry a new method for sustainable, ultrasensitive detection of amines and semivolatiles. Using X-ray desorbed solid urea, the team achieved attomole-level sensitivity with stable operation across humidity conditions with all solid-state reagents.

This white paper explains how insufficient resolution leads to ambiguity—and how new high-resolution mass spectrometry is essential for identifying what truly matters in air chemistry.

This article investigates the use of a Multischeme Chemical Ionization Inlet (MION) combined with Orbitrap mass spectrometry to study the detection of pesticides in both standard mixtures and fruit extracts. Across 651 pesticides tested, the method detects 447 compounds at 100 ng/mL, 218 at 20 ng/mL, and 136 at 10 ng/mL.

Historically, Orbitrap mass spectrometers have been considered large, power-intensive, and lab-bound instruments -- but times have changed!

A December 2024 Nature study reveals how isoprene emissions drive new particle formation in the upper troposphere. A MION2-CIMS provided key measurements, detecting species critical to nucleation and growth under extreme conditions.

MPCIMS enables simultaneous detection of Volatile Organic Compounds and their oxidized reaction products within a single gas stream.