ANALYTICAL MERIT OF ELECTROSPRAY ION MOBILITY SPECTROMETRY AS A CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETECTOR

Electrospray ionization ion mobility spectrometry (ESI-IMS), a techniq ue which has only recently become analytically useful, has been evalua ted for use as a detector for microbore liquid chromatography and capi llary electrophoresis. Figures of merit for ESI-IMS were determined. D etection limits as low as 1 x 10(-15) mol s(-1) were measured, with a linear response range of 3 to 4 orders of magnitude and with reproduci bility within 3 % (relative standard deviation of peak area). Gradient elution with water/methanol mobile phase did not perturb chromatograp hic baseline, compound response, or product ion mobility. Both positiv e and negative ion mobility spectra for more than 30 compounds demonst rated the sensitivity of ESI-IMS response to a wide range of analytes. Finally, the concept of using ESI-IMS as an ionization source for gas phase samples was presented, potentially unifying detector applicatio n for both gas and liquid chromatography.