SpheriCal Calibrants on the MALDI-8020. High Purity, Monodisperse Calibrants Suitable for a Range of Applications

User Benefits

- High purity, monodisperse calibrants that provide the flexibility to use as either an internal calibrant or external calibrant - Lower residual mass errors when compared to standard protein and peptide calibrants - Clearly defined calibrant masses applicable to a wide range of applications e.g. polymers, proteins etc.

Introduction

The MALDI-8020 linear benchtop MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer is a versatile instrument that has proven itself an analytical workhorse with a diverse array of analytes. One challenge users often face is finding mass calibrants to suit their analyte. In MALDI laboratories, a large selection of peptides, proteins, oligonucleotides, polymers, lipids and other inorganic molecules are used for instrument calibration. An alternative approach for MALDI-TOF calibration is using SpheriCal standards (Polymer Factory, Sweden). These dendrimer polymer calibrants are available as SpheriCal ‘Neat’ and ‘Aqua’ forms. With improved stability relative to traditional peptide or protein calibrants, these compounds produce highly resolved peaks which can provide better mass accuracy, particularly at higher masses. SpheriCal calibrants exhibit long dry shelf-lives at room temperature, even when exposed to ambient light and Oxygen (no visible sign of degradation even after 4 years and 5 months). Synthetic dendrimer calibrants are offered to cover the mass range m/z 200 through to m/z 30,000 and work with a range of commonly used MALDI matrices. In this application note, we demonstrate the utility of these calibrants in some common workflows.

February 17, 2026 GMT