What is the important role of analytical chemistry in national economy and scientific research?

China attaches great importance to the research and development and application of scientific instruments; During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, the state invested about 1 100 million yuan in instruments. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, the state invested more than 7 billion RMB, and some projects were 65.438+0.2 billion RMB (including self-financing); In the 13th Five-Year Plan, the state gave more support, and some projects cost more than10.40 billion yuan (including self-financing). At present, the development of scientific instruments and their applications in China is booming.

Because scientific instruments are "four or two" industries, their development prospects are very broad. Based on the importance of its strategic position in national science and technology, economy, national defense, people's livelihood and social development, it is everywhere, involving agriculture, light, heavy, sea, land, air, food, clothing, use and other industries. Therefore, accelerating the development of scientific instrument industry has become one of the focuses of the world. This paper briefly introduces the development and application of scientific instruments in China.

A, spectral instruments

In principle, spectral instruments can be divided into absorption spectra (ultraviolet absorption, visible absorption, ultraviolet-visible absorption, gas-phase molecular absorption, infrared absorption, atomic absorption, etc. ), emission spectrum (fluorescence, Raman, microwave plasma, etc. ), optical rotation spectrum, etc. From the application point of view, it can be divided into molecular spectra (infrared, ultraviolet, visible light, ultraviolet visible light, optical rotation, gas-phase molecules, fluorescence, Raman and so on. ) and atomic spectrum (atomic absorption, atomic fluorescence, etc. ).

According to the author's preliminary statistics, there are more than 20 kinds of spectral instruments in the world at present. The most widely used and representative spectral instruments are ultraviolet spectrum, infrared spectrum and atomic absorption spectrum. In addition, the development of laser Raman spectroscopy and near infrared spectroscopy is also very hot.

1, ultraviolet spectrophotometer

Especially in the application field in China at present, the market situation of ultraviolet spectrum instruments with the widest coverage is as follows: Shimadzu Company ranks first, and Beijing Puxi General Motors ranks second, and its ultraviolet spectrum instruments account for more than Agilent, Hitachi and Perkin Elmer in China market; Fortunately, among the top 10 ultraviolet spectrometer manufacturers in China, China accounts for 4 (40%), which is a very gratifying phenomenon.

2. Raman spectrometer

Although the domestic market for Raman spectroscopy instruments is not large at present, there are nearly 20 companies that develop and produce various laser Raman spectroscopy instruments. In the fields of food, medicine and environmental protection, the measurement and quality inspection will soon reach a certain scale and level.

3. Near infrared spectrometer

From the development of near infrared spectroscopy instruments; Although near infrared spectroscopy has a huge market. However, the distribution of brands is scattered, which shows that many brands have a certain market share, and no brand has a market share of more than 20%. However, although the development of near infrared is not satisfactory at present, the development trend of domestic near infrared products is very good.

4. Atomic absorption spectrometer

At present, atomic absorption spectrometry is very popular with users in detecting trace heavy metals (arsenic, mercury, cadmium, chromium, copper, etc.). ) in terms of water quality. For example, if Cu in water is greater than 1.5mg/L, it will be bitter; Copper has a great influence on coronary heart disease; Excessive copper in water will inhibit the growth of algae and affect aquaculture; We should also pay special attention to mercury and arsenic in drinking water, which are extremely harmful to human body and are carcinogenic trace elements.

Why is AAS favored in analysis and testing? First, it is cheap and cost-effective; Second, the operation is relatively simple; Third, high sensitivity. Therefore, the majority of scientific and technological workers should pay attention to the application and development of atomic absorption spectrometry. Many third-party testing institutions are using AAS extensively, and its rapid development deserves our great attention.

In terms of the development and progress of the whole spectral detection instrument, it is particularly important to point out that in recent years, new spectral instruments have appeared in China. For example, the gas phase molecular absorption spectrometer of Shanghai Anjie Company with intellectual property rights; Portable differential Raman spectrometer of Nanjing Jianzhi Company; Beijing SPOT ExR5 10 Laser Raman Spectrometer; There are also various new water quality detection spectrometers of Changzhou Shengaohua Company. In a word, the development and application of spectral instruments in China are worthy of pride.

Second, the chromatographic instrument

In terms of domestic chromatographic instruments, there are dozens of companies that produce gas chromatography (GC), and their products are relatively mature, which can basically meet the use requirements. For example, the GC quality of Zhejiang R&F is very good, which can compete with similar foreign products, and their HPLC has also developed rapidly; Another example: Park Wing Su Company in Dalian, Tongwei Company in Shanghai and Wufeng Company have relatively complete products, which can meet the use requirements; Shanghai Tongwei's top-grade chromatographic instruments (capillary chromatography, electrochromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, etc. ) mainly sold abroad, aiming at famous foreign universities with high research requirements, and its liquid chromatography and electrochromatography are in the leading position in the world; The HPLC of Shanghai Wufeng Company is very reliable. In a word, the development of chromatographic instruments in China is very good.

1, high performance liquid chromatography instrument and its latest progress

Liquid chromatography has developed rapidly in recent years, which is refreshing. No matter in the fields of medicine, food, medical treatment, health, agriculture, environmental protection, etc., many analytical work done by ultraviolet spectroscopy in the past has been changed to HPLC. Because it can separate, analyze and detect complex systems, it deserves everyone's attention.

In recent years, the demand for high performance liquid chromatography has soared. The annual demand of all kinds of HPLC instruments in China is more than 10000. The global annual demand is about $5.5 billion or more. At present, there are dozens of foreign manufacturers and agents of a certain scale in China, and about 20 domestic manufacturers; Domestic HPLC is favored by foreigners, but it is puzzling that Chinese people are superstitious about foreign products.

However, chromatographic instruments currently face three major challenges: high resolution, high separation speed and high sensitivity. Therefore, new high performance liquid chromatography instruments are constantly emerging. Specifically reflected in:

1) Great development of two-dimensional and multi-dimensional HPLC: the nano-upgraded two-dimensional HPLC produced in the United States and Japan combines nano-microcolumn and two-dimensional HPLC chromatography technology, which can be directly used for protein omics and genomics research;

2) With the development of capillary and nanoliter HPLC, microcolumns, capillary columns and nanoliter columns can be used for liquid chromatographic analysis;

3) UHPLC: Since Waters launched UPLC in 2004, JASCO, Agilent, Thermo Fisher Scientific Shier Technology, Shimadzu and Hitachi have successively launched their own UHPLC. UHPLC is about $65.438 billion each. Last year, about 65,438+0,000 sets were sold in China, totaling $65,438+0 billion!

4) It is particularly worth mentioning that Shanghai Tongwei Company has successfully completed the international initiative of pressurized capillary chromatography and quantitative capillary electrophoresis in recent years, which is also the international initiative (the quantitative analysis accuracy of general capillary electrophoresis instruments is poor). Moreover, the research and development project of "Efficient Microfluidic Electrochromatography Instruments and Applications" has been listed as a major key project in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and has passed the national acceptance. It can be compared with UHPLC, the column efficiency is 10 times higher than UHPLC, and five aromatic hydrocarbons can be separated in 5 seconds, which is better than UHPLC in general and is the first in the world. I think these achievements deserve the happiness of analysts.

2. The latest development and application of gas chromatography instruments.

GC has been sold for a long time. In recent years, the demand for GC has soared, and the domestic demand has reached more than 15000 units. In particular, it is widely used in the analysis and detection of volatile substances such as alcohol. In addition, gas chromatography also plays an important role in the development of combined instruments, such as GC-IMS and GC-MS.

The GC of Zhejiang R&F, Shanghai Yidian and Beijing East-West Analysis mentioned above can meet the use requirements, and some of them can completely compete with foreign countries.

Especially worth mentioning is the chromatographic data processing system. Before 1980s, chromatographic analysis "operated for three days a day to process data", but Xiaofeng often only "turned a blind eye". Chromatographic data processor appeared in 1990s, which greatly reduced the workload, but its function was limited. At present, chromatographic workstation not only processes data, but also controls the operation of instruments, and chromatographic analysis has begun to enter the "fool" era; Combined with automatic sampler, chromatographic instruments have entered the era of automation or intelligence. Subsequently, the "network" chromatograph represented by HP-6890N became popular. Combined with database technology, GC-MS analysis results have the convenience of online retrieval. The concept of "cloud" was developed by GC-9720 instrument of domestic Fuli company, and its index was almost the same as HP-6890. The appraisal meeting was highly praised by experts. Since then, the era when chromatographic analysis is no longer inscrutable and complicated has passed.

3. The latest development and application of TLC scanning chromatograph.

Shanghai Zhe Ke Instrument Co., Ltd. is one of the three major brand companies in the research and development of thin-layer scanning chromatography instruments in the world. They produce various types of thin-layer scanning chromatographs, which are sold to relevant application units at home and abroad, and the quality and reliability of users are very good; The latest and most representative brand of Zhe Ke Company is 3500Plus full-function thin-layer scanning chromatograph, which is the best of its kind in the world at present.

Third, mass spectrometry instrument

At present, there are more than 10 companies in China developing MS, ICP-MS, GC-MS and other instruments, but basically there is a certain gap with similar products abroad, so we need to catch up hard.

For example, although there are many domestic and foreign ICP-MS manufacturers and products in the market, most of the market share of ICP-MS is currently divided by Agilent, Thermo Fisher Scientific Shier Technology and Perkin Elmer.

However, it is worth mentioning that Guangzhou Hexin Company has outstanding performance in time-of-flight mass spectrometry and has been sold to developed countries such as the United States and Germany.