title: Microfluidic gradient formation for nanoflow chip LC.
abstract: We report a method for forming a nanoflow liquid chromatography (nano-LC) gradient using a single fluid pump at flow rates below 1 muL/min by passively forming a gradient on a microfluidic device. This device works together with an Agilent HPLC-Chip to perform high-throughput nanoflow liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (nano-LC/MS). The nanoflow gradient delay time is reduced from several minutes for a commercial LC nanoflow pump to only a few seconds with this microfluidic device, thus shortening the total analysis time and increasing the analysis throughput. With this microfluidic device, a nano-LC solvent delivery system can be greatly simplified and have increased robustness, reliability, reduced waste, and ease of use.
authors.affiliation: Agilent Laboratories, 5301 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Santa Clara, California 95051-7201, USA. reid_brennen@agilent.com
authors.forename: Reid A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Brennen
authors.forename: Hongfeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Kevin P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Killeen
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000295:instrumentation; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation