Chiral separation has become one of the most important application areas in HPLC, including the use of ultra-high pressure HPLC (X-LC™). The increasing demand for chiral chromatography in various fields, such as drug analysis, drug discovery, biochemical analysis, natural product analysis, organic synthesis, etc. have resulted in a parallel demand for optimized chiral separations and more sensitive detection methods. Recent advances in chiral column technology are boosting the use of chiral chromatography in a greater number of laboratories; however, advances in chiral detection technology have only recently met the required demands in terms of sensitivity and selectivity.

Circular Dichroism (CD) is based upon the differential absorption of right and left circularly polarized light as a result of a chiral chromaphore and is a much more specific technique than Optical Rotation (OR) or Polarimetry techniques. CD detectors can provide a negative or positive signal based on the chirality of the eluting molecule, thus providing positive identification of the molecular chirality, unlike conventional UV, RI or Fluorescence detectors which cannot differentiate between the chiral molecules.

JASCO developed the new 3195CD Circular Dichroism Chiral Detector as an innovative CD detector for HPLC systems including the JASCO X-LC systems, using the same technology applied in conventional CD spectropolarimeters. The 3195CD enables highly sensitive and selective detections of chiral compounds, simultaneously determining both the CD and UV absorption of the sample in the same cell, and determines optical isomer separation and purity. To meet X-LC requirements, the 3195CD features a high speed sampling rate of 50 data points/sec, for both the CD and UV signals, and the specially designed flow cell minimizes peak broadening.

JASCO is proud to announce the release of two new FT-IR Microscope accessories, the IRT-5000 and IRT-7000, which can be easily interfaced with either JASCO’s FT/IR-4000 or FT/IR-6000 spectrometers. These microscopes feature innovative functions such as “Smart Mapping”, newly developed for infrared micro analysis and IR imaging.

The IRT-5000 is an FT-IR microscope system featuring dual detector capability and multiple objectives with excellent signal to noise ratio. The IRT-7000 is a multi-channel IR microscope for IR imaging, and with the combination of the FT/IR-6000 and step scan option offers an advanced capability for dynamic imaging as well as time-resolved measurements of a specific area.

In addition to high-performance and ease-of-use operations, both microscopes feature a “Smart Mapping” function as standard, which enables mapping analyses of a limited area without the use of an automated sample stage. By using the manual stage, mapping measurements, line measurements, multi-point analyses and ATR mapping can be easily performed in addition to single-point measurements. The “Smart Monitoring” function allows simultaneous viewing of the full sample image on the software display using an integrated high resolution CCD camera. An optional automatic X-Y-Z sample stage enables auto-focus and mapping analysis of a large sample area.

The IRT-5000
The IRT-5000 FT-IR Microscope employs a mid-band MCT detector as standard, while up to two detectors can be installed simultaneously. With the addition of a linear array detector, the microscope can be easily upgraded for IR imaging. In addition to the standard transmission and reflection measurements, optional ATR and grazing angle reflection objectives expand the capability of this FT-IR microscope system.


The IRT-7000
The IRT-7000 FT-IR microscope offers two detectors as standard, a 16-channel linear array detector and a single-point MCT detector. This combination with an automatic sample stage allows IR imaging of a specific area with extremely high spatial resolution and excellent sensitivity in a short time.

This year JASCO celebrates its 50th anniversary in the analytical instrumentation market. The company was founded in 1958 by a group of researchers at the Institute of Optics, at what is now Tsukuba University, who required an infrared spectrophotometer for their research. Since a commercially available instrument did not exist in Japan, they undertook the challenge of developing their own. Their combined efforts produced a reliable instrument with excellent optical performance. Other research groups began asking these researchers to replicate the instrument for use within their laboratories. With increased demand for more instruments, JASCO Corporation was founded.
Today, JASCO is located in over 57 countries, manufacturing both spectroscopy and chromatography instruments and continues to meet the needs of its customers with quality products and a pro-active service and support team. The company’s line-up of products includes: UV-Vis/NIR, Dispersive Raman, FT-Raman, FT-IR, Polarimetry, Fluorescence, Circular Dichroism (CD), Dissolution, NSOM, HPLC, SFC/SFE, and Extreme Speed X-LC™.