title: Packed column supercritical fluid chromatography/mass spectrometry for high-throughput analysis.
abstract: A supercritical fluid chromatograph was interfaced to a mass spectrometer, and the system was evaluated for applications requiring high sample throughput. Experiments presented demonstrate the high-speed separation capability of supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and the effectiveness of supercritical fluid chromatography/mass spectrometry (SFC/MS) for fast, accurate determinations of multicomponent mixtures. A high-throughput liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) analysis cycle time is reduced 3-fold using our general SFC/MS high-throughput method, resulting in substantial time saving for large numbers of samples. Unknown mixture characterization is improved due to the increased selectivity of SFC/MS compared to LC/MS. This was demonstrated with sample mixtures from a 96-well combinatorial library plate. In this paper, we report a negative mode atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) method for SFC/MS suitable for most of the components in library production mixtures. Flow injection analysis (FIA) also benefits from this SFC/MS system. A broader range of solvents is amenable to the SFC mobile phase compared with standard LC/MS solvents, and solutes elute more rapidly from the SFC/MS system, reducing sample carryover and cycle time. Finally, our instrumental setup allows for facile conversion between LC/MS and SFC/MS modes of operation.
authors.affiliation: Alanex Corporation, 3550 General Atomics Court, San Diego, California 92121-1194.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Ventura
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Farrell
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Aurigemma
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Greig