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Evaluation of a sheathless nanospray interface based on a porous tip sprayer for CE‐ESI‐MS coupling
Author(s) -
Bonvin Grégoire,
Veuthey JeanLuc,
Rudaz Serge,
Schappler Julie
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.201100461
Subject(s) - sprayer , capillary action , electrospray ionization , electrospray , repeatability , analytical chemistry (journal) , analyte , mass spectrometry , sensitivity (control systems) , capillary electrophoresis , chromatography , materials science , porosity , coupling (piping) , chemistry , composite material , geotechnical engineering , electronic engineering , engineering
The hyphenation of capillary electrophoresis (CE) with mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful method to obtain high efficient, sensitive, and selective analyses. The successful coupling with electrospray ionization (ESI) source requires closed electric circuits for both the CE separation and the ESI processes. A wide range of interfaces has been proposed to satisfy this requirement. Among them, the new high sensitivity porous sprayer based on a porous tip achieves the electric connection by inserting the capillary outlet made of a porous material into an ESI needle filled with a conductive liquid and independently grounded. This device is compatible with the minute flow rates exhibited in CE and therefore makes possible the use of a nano‐electrospray behavior. In this work, this interface was evaluated for hyphenating a CE with a single quadrupole MS instrument for low molecular weight analytes. Investigations aimed at highlighting the most influent parameters thanks to a design of experiments, reaching the best performance in terms of sensitivity and stability. MS signal intensities of various pharmaceutical compounds (e.g. amphetamines, β‐blockers) emphasized high sensitivity and efficiency, while repeatability, expressed as relative standard deviation of corrected heights and areas, was suitable for quantitative purposes (<5%).