SEPARATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF BASIC DENDRIMERS USING CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS ONLINE COUPLED TO A SECTOR MASS-SPECTROMETER

The on-line coupling of capillary electrophoresis (CE) with a sector m ass spectrometer via an electrospray ionization (ESI) source has been used to separate and identify polydisperse dendrimeric diaminobutane ( DAB)-based polynitriles. A sample of the corresponding second generati on has been analysed and revealed to be a complex mixture of the produ ct, DAB-dendr-(CN)(8) accompanied by several by-products. The capillar y electrophoresis/mass spectrometry (CE/MS) data, including the recons tructed-ion current, the mass spectra and the UV-trace, provided fast and detailed information concerning the heterogeneity of the sample. T he respective ESI mass spectra are dominated by the [M+H](+), [2M+H]() and/or [M+2H](2+) peaks. The mass resolution of the sector mass spec trometer requiring m/Delta m=2000, easily allowed signals of doubly ch arged ions to be assigned. CE/MS proved to be a promising tool with re gard to the efficient analysis of basic dendrimers.