EVALUATION OF AN ELECTROSPRAY INTERFACE FOR CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS-TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS-SPECTROMETRY

The electrospray technique has developed into a widely used ionization source for interfacing capillary electrophoresis (CE) to mass spectro metry (MS). However, its implementation is not always straightforward. A large number of factors have been found to be important contributor s to the production of a high quality spray, and the efficient transfe r of analytes from the CE column into the mass spectrometer can become , in certain cases, troublesome. An electrospray device which can acco mmodate operation with a liquid sheath, nebulizing gas and make-up gas , as well as operation without a liquid sheath in the microelectrospra y mode, was constructed. The electrospray source was evaluated for eff icient CE separations, which require the best performance. (C) 1997 El sevier Science B.V.