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High‐performance liquid chromatography/inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry for the detection of carbon‐containing compounds
Author(s) -
Smith Christopher,
Jensen Berit Packert,
Wilson Ian D.,
AbouShakra Fadi,
Crowther David
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.1504
Subject(s) - chemistry , chromatography , mass spectrometry , detection limit , methanol , aqueous solution , high performance liquid chromatography , inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry , analytical chemistry (journal) , organic chemistry
High‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) combined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) has been studied as a means for the detection of carbon to provide a ‘universal’ method for detecting organic compounds in chromatographic eluents. Carbon is particularly difficult to ionise and the amount of carbon present in normal chromatographic systems leads to high backgrounds, making detection a challenge. Novel separation approaches were therefore employed, using either entirely aqueous eluents (at temperatures of 60 and 160°C, dependent on the column used) to eliminate the organic modifier completely, or isotopically enriched solvents. For the aqueous eluents, detection limits for sulphanilamide were found to be 2.26 μg, corresponding to 1.13 μmol (0.47 μmol of carbon), injected on a conventional 4.6 mm i.d. column. The use of a narrow bore column with highly isotopically enriched 12 C‐methanol (99.95 atom%) as organic modifier for the mobile phase enabled the detection of 86 μmol for 13 C‐triple‐labelled caffeine and 79 μmol for 13 C‐double‐labelled phenacetin. The sensitive detection of 12 C‐compounds with 13 C‐enriched methanol as organic modifier proved impractical due to a lower level of isotopic enrichment (99 atom%) of this solvent, with the residual 12 C‐methanol resulting in significant interference. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.