title: Inlet ionization: a new highly sensitive approach for liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry of small and large molecules.
abstract: Inlet ionization is a new approach for ionizing both small and large molecules in solids or liquid solvents with high sensitivity. The utility of solvent based inlet ionization mass spectrometry (MS) as a method for analysis of volatile and nonvolatile compounds eluting from a liquid chromatography (LC) column is demonstrated. This new LC/MS approach uses reverse phase solvent systems common to electrospray ionization MS. The first LC/MS analyses using this novel approach produced sharp chromatographic peaks and good quality full mass range mass spectra for over 25 peptides from injection of only 1 pmol of a tryptic digest of bovine serum albumin using an eluent flow rate of 55 μL min(-1). Similarly, full acquisition LC/MS/MS of the MH(+) ion of the drug clozapine, using the same solvent flow rate, produced a signal-to-noise ratio of 54 for the major fragment ion with injection of only 1 μL of a 2 ppb solution. LC/MS results were acquired on two different manufacturer's mass spectrometers using a Waters Corporation NanoAcquity liquid chromatograph.
authors: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of the Science, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors: Vincent S
authors: VS
authors: Pagnotti
authors: Ellen D
authors: ED
authors: Inutan
authors: Darrell D
authors: DD
authors: Marshall
authors: Charles N
authors: CN
authors: McEwen
authors: Sarah
authors: S
authors: Trimpin