AXYS Analytical

About AXYS Analytical
AXYS has come a long way since spring 1974 when we began benchmarking contaminants in Canada’s Arctic ahead of oil and gas development. In the last forty years we’ve evolved into North America’s leading commercial laboratory focused on organic contaminant measurement in all matrices for multiple industries and governments around the world. Our success is largely due to the partnership with our clients and their relentless pursuit of understanding environmental impacts founded on scientific rigour, technical expertise and highest integrity data. You’ve demanded excellence and exhorted us to stretch to meet your needs. Along the way, we’ve innovated and found better ways to support scientifically defensible presentation of key and emerging issues – PCBs in mothers’ milk, naphthenic acids in Oil Sands waters, pharmaceuticals in waste water effluent and more.

Analytical leadership requires scientific excellence and specialized expertise. AXYS focuses on the analysis of emerging organic contaminants using advanced gas and liquid chromatographic techniques, linked with single and tandem mass spectroscopy. We precisely characterize and measure the chemical contaminants in samples as varied as human blood, fish tissue, water and sediments.

Our ability to detect extremely low concentrations of organic chemicals, in small sample sizes and complex and matrices, is unmatched by conventional, general service, environmental laboratories. Industry leading ultra-trace analysis and multi-matrix combined extraction techniques, paired with exceptional client supporting chemical interpretation, delivers true “analytical advantage” to our clients: The leading lab and most precise data to best inform your decisions.

A Member of the AXYS Group of Companies. AXYS is one of three firms that form the AXYS Group, which also includes AXYS Technologies Inc. and Seastar Chemicals Inc.. All entities came from that original firm founded in 1974, and today are stand-alone companies, linked together by common shareholders and a proud reputation for leadership in their fields of expertise.

AXYS Facility

Laboratory: Housed in purpose-built, company-owned facilities, we are located on Canada’s pristine, west coast, well distanced from high output chemical point sources. Operations occupy two separate laboratory buildings (sample preparation/extraction and instrumental analysis/data validation). Together they comprise 20,000 sq. ft. of company-owned laboratory space on a single site. Each facility is custom designed to optimize “analytically clean” workspace, including controlled, filtered lab air distribution and highly scrutinized material use to provide extremely low laboratory blank background levels and minimize detection limits. Access to laboratories, sample receipt, storage and data areas is controlled, electronically secured and monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Instrumentation: AXYS offers over 25 years combined experience in quadrupole and high resolution GC-MS analysis. AXYS maintains and tunes instrumental platforms within high- and low-resolution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS and GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to optimize resolution and sensitivity to ultra-trace targets. Instrumental platforms and operating systems are standardized as practicably as possible, providing cross-analytical contingency. This approach enables personnel specialization within analytical disciplines, while ensuring sufficient instrumental (and personnel) contingency to avoid operational interruption.

AXYS utilizes multiple platforms to optimize to the needs of various analytical products:

Micromass Autospec Ultima for GC-HRMS
Micromass Quattro Ultima for LC-MS/MS