Is sleep mode applicable to GC/MS?

Hello ByCoder ,

I have moved this to the GC/MS forum for better visibility.

thanks i'm new to using the forum

Turning off the systems on Friday night that need to be ready to go on Monday morning is not recommended.  It can take quite some time for a GC/MS to come back up to operational after being shut down.  Even cooling the temperatures all down and then heating them back up can take a few hours for thermal stability.  See: (+) How to shut down an Agilent GC/MS for power fails up to long term storage 17Mar2020.pdf - Files - GC/MS - Agilent Community

I would recommend that you create a method saved as something like Standby.M .  I set the GC Inlet, oven and MS transferline to 111° C.  I can see this number on the GC display from across the lab and know the instrument is in standby.  The heaters are using minimal energy maintaining this temperature compared to the amount they use actively heating up to a higher temperature. In fact maintaining the inlet and transferline at their normal running temperature once they are already hot does not consume much energy. It's the oven ramping up that requires the most power.   Having the inlet, oven, and transferline over 100° C also reduces the chances of differential cooling and the column nuts loosening and causing a leak. 

Set the inlet to SPLIT, the column flow still at the normal 1.2 ml/min of helium carrier gas, and the Gas Saver mode to ON 20 ml/min.   The normal tune file loaded will keep the ion source and quadrupole heated.  Those parameters are about as low a power and gas usage as possible without requiring lots of time at next startup.

If you want you can load the Standby method and then start a sequence. After the sequence is complete the Standby method will be active again.  Or you can make the last line in your method to load Standby.M.

The Sleep method parameters are discussed in the GC Operating manual.  It can be intiiated by the MassHunter Acquisition Top menu: Instrument, then Sleep.  it can also be the last line in a Sequence using the Keyword  --- Sleep.

Dear Howard

Thanks for your tips for mass hunter calibration curve. I tired to generate calibration curve. But fail. I am using Mass Hunter 10.2 version. Could you please help me on this regard.  Is there any option for you to please help online to familiar Mass Hunter software. Dr Amzad

You mentioned having the gas saver set to 20ml/min. Does this setting consume a lot of carrier compared to the 1.2 ml/min through the column or am I not thinking straight. Would it work better to have a standby method with splitless mode? is there a concern about no gas going through the split vent for long periods of time
Just asking

Thanks

Kevin

The injection port must have sufficient flow through it to eliminate any possibility of oxygen entering the system. The Split/Splitless injection port needs 20 ml/min or more going through it for that to happen. 20 ml/min of gas is a very small amount.

If 20 ml/min of helium flowing all the time during standby is an issue because of helium availability, consider purchasing a Helium Conservation Module for the GC. This allows you to switch to either Nitrogen or Hydrogen gas during standby/sleep.