title: Nanospray mass spectrometry in protein and peptide chemistry.
abstract: The introduction of electrospray in the mid-1980s revolutionised biological mass spectrometry, in particular in the field of protein and peptide sequence analysis. Electrospray is a concentration-dependent, rather than a mass-dependent process, and maximum sensitivity is achieved at low flow rates with high-concentration, low-volume samples. This has lead to the development of nanoelectrospray, microelectrospray and related low flow-rate forms of electrospray which offer high sensitivity with low sample consumption. In this chapter the physical chemistry of low flow-rate electrospray is discussed, and a brief review of the types of low flow-rate electrospray interfaces is made. An indication of the performance obtainable on various instruments is given, along with some comments from the author's own experience of these techniques.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Griffiths
mesh_terms: D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D011506:Proteins