title: Direct Interface between Digital Microfluidics and High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry.
abstract: We introduce an automated method to facilitate in-line coupling of digital microfluidics (DMF) with HPLC-MS, using a custom, 3D-printed manifold and a custom plugin to the popular open-source control system, DropBot. The method was designed to interface directly with commercial autosamplers (with no prior modification), suggesting that it will be widely accessible for end-users. The system was demonstrated to be compatible with samples dissolved in aqueous buffers and neat methanol and was validated by application to a common steroid-labeling derivatization reaction. We propose that the methods described here will be useful for a wide range of applications, combining the automated sample processing power of DMF with the resolving and analytical capacity of HPLC-MS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto , 80 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.|SCIEX, 71 Four Valley Drive, Concord, Ontario L4K 4V8, Canada.
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto , 80 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.|Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, 160 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada.
authors.forename: Kihwan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: SCIEX, 71 Four Valley Drive, Concord, Ontario L4K 4V8, Canada.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto , 80 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.
authors.forename: Jihye
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto , 80 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.|Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, 160 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fobel
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto , 80 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.
authors.forename: Brendon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Seale
authors.affiliation: SCIEX, 71 Four Valley Drive, Concord, Ontario L4K 4V8, Canada.
authors.forename: J Larry
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: SCIEX, 71 Four Valley Drive, Concord, Ontario L4K 4V8, Canada.
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Covey
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto , 80 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.|Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto , 164 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G9, Canada.|Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, 160 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada.
authors.forename: Aaron R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Wheeler