Capillary electrophoresis time-of-flight mass spectrometry of an opium powder

Intensive work has been invested in recent years to evaluate the performance of capillary electrophoresis (CE) in forensic analysis. Tremendous progress has also been achieved in interfacing CE to sensitive and specific detection systems such as the mass spectrometer (MS). We have recently developed an electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ESI-TOFMS) for use as a detector for fast and efficient liquid phase separations. In the present paper we investigated ESI-TOFMS for the analysis of an opium powder. Both continuous infusion and CE were studied for direct sample introduction into the TOFMS and mixture separation, respectively. CEMS analysis of the opium was performed in a citrate buffer, using aqueous or mixed aqueous/organic eluents. Low fmol detection was achieved.