Waters ACQUITY PREMIER SOLUTION

Importance of the Topic

The analysis of metal-sensitive compounds in complex samples often suffers from adsorption to metal surfaces in chromatographic systems, leading to poor sensitivity, peak tailing, and inconsistent results. The ACQUITY PREMIER Solution introduces MaxPeak High Performance Surfaces (HPS) technology to address these challenges. By minimizing nonspecific interactions, it enhances detection limits, reproducibility, and throughput, making it highly relevant for pharmaceutical, biotech, environmental, and food-safety laboratories.

Study Objectives and Overview

This application note describes the components and performance of the ACQUITY PREMIER Solution. The goals are to:

• Reduce variability associated with metal-sensitive analytes without system or column passivation.
• Improve chromatographic peak shape, sensitivity, and reproducibility.
• Accelerate method development and time-to-result.

Methodology and Instrumentation

The ACQUITY PREMIER Solution combines:

• ACQUITY PREMIER System (UPLC platform).
• ACQUITY PREMIER Columns treated with MaxPeak HPS surfaces.
• QuanRecovery vials and plates featuring MaxPeak HPS coating.

Main Results and Discussion

Comparative studies evaluated conventional UPLC versus the PREMIER Solution:

• Phosphorylated peptide (insulin receptor doubly phosphorylated peptide) analysis showed significant peak tailing with untreated systems. With MaxPeak HPS, tailing factors improved from ~2.0 to ~1.3 and RSD decreased from ~8.9% to ~1.0% over 48 hours.
• Dexamethasone sodium phosphate analysis achieved higher peak areas and sharper peaks without passivation, demonstrating >108-fold area improvement for citric acid relative to standard UPLC.

These data confirm that MaxPeak HPS technology eliminates secondary metal interactions, delivering Gaussian peak shapes, enhanced MS signal intensity, and reduced coelution.

Practical Benefits and Applications

The ACQUITY PREMIER Solution offers:

• Faster time-to-result by removing passivation steps.
• Increased confidence in detection of trace and metal-binding analytes (organic acids, phosphates, peptides, oligonucleotides, glycans, phospholipids).
• Improved system-to-system and column-to-column reproducibility, facilitating method transfer between laboratories.
• Streamlined method development and higher laboratory throughput.

Future Trends and Applications

Continued advances in surface-coating chemistries and UPLC-MS integration are expected to:

• Extend benefits to even more labile or strongly adsorbing analytes.
• Enable automated optimization of surface properties for specific sample classes.
• Integrate with artificial intelligence-driven method development for faster, data-rich analyses.
• Support miniaturized and high-throughput platforms in drug discovery, biomarker research, and clinical diagnostics.

Conclusion

The ACQUITY PREMIER Solution, leveraging MaxPeak HPS technology, represents a significant step forward in chromatographic analysis of metal-sensitive compounds. By eliminating time-consuming passivation, improving peak shape, and boosting sensitivity and reproducibility, it addresses critical pain points in modern analytical workflows and accelerates the delivery of reliable data.