A novel two-laser interface for coupling capillary electrochromatography with ion-trap time-of-flight mass spectrometry

An interface has been developed for the hyphenation of capillary electrochromatography (CEC) with mass spectrometry (MS). Chromatographic eluate vaporization and selective analyte ionization occur within a quadrupole ion-trap, which permits significant instrument simplification when compared with the atmospheric pressure interfaces typically used for CEC-MS. Vaporization is achieved using laser desorption at 1064 nm while ionization is accomplished through UV photoionization. This two-step approach, through ionization laser wavelength selection, can provide ultratrace analysis with high selectivity. The mass spectrometer is a hybrid ion-trap time-of-flight (TOF) instrument in which the ion-trap is used in radio frequency-only mode, with DC-pulse ejection, to provide decoupling of the different timescales required for CEC separation and TOF mass analysis. The ion-trap is capable of accumulating ions over multiple laser shots. The mass resolution of the demonstration instrument was circa 1500. Preliminary CEC-MS runs have been recorded for mixtures containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. A concentration detection limit of 500 nM, for naphthalene in acetonitrile, has been determined for the interface. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.