Tempo nano LC – High-precision nanoflux chromatography system
The Applied Biosystems Tempo nano LC is designed to meet the rigorous requirements of proteomics, biomarker discovery and peptide quantification applications using LC-MS. By integrating a direct pumping system with microfluidic flow control, it maintains a flow accuracy of less than 1 nL/min for each mobile phase, ensuring excellent gradient reproducibility and exceptional separation stability. Unlike flow divider systems, the Tempo nano LC eliminates fractionation errors, significantly reducing solvent consumption and waste, thereby optimising operating costs.
The system is capable of operating over a wide flow rate range from 20 to 1000 nL/min for the main analysis and from 1 to 20 µL/min for the first dimension in an MDLC configuration. Its compact design, with close coupling between the pump, gradient mixer andautosampler, minimises dispersion and delay time, enabling shorter analytical cycles without compromising data quality. This configuration ensures that downstream pressure fluctuations do not affect flow rate, enhancing the robustness of the system during prolonged analyses.
The Tempo nano LC is particularly suited to complex analyses requiring numerous repeated injections. It has demonstrated an average retention time variation of only 0.08 minutes over twenty injections of peptides from a BSA digest, with remarkable consistency in peak shapes and peak widths at half height between 6 and 10 seconds. For applications requiring accurate quantification in complex samples, such as biomarker analysis in digested human plasma, the system maintains peak area reproducibility better than 10% for the majority of MRM transitions monitored, even without the use of internal standards.
The simple hydraulic design and user-friendly software interface allow researchers to easily install and operate the system, reducing the risk of human error and improving the repeatability of analyses. Its ability to support fast and efficient gradients on complex mixtures makes it an ideal tool for life science research laboratories seeking precision, reliability and operational efficiency.
