ONLINE ANALYSIS BY CAPILLARY SEPARATIONS INTERFACED TO AN ION-TRAP STORAGE REFLECTRON TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS-SPECTROMETER

The interface of high-resolution capillary separation methods to time- of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) has generated considerable intere st since TOF can provide the rapid and sensitive detection required by high resolution separations. In recent years, our laboratory has deve loped a variety of high-resolution capillary separation methods interf aced to TOF-MS via an ion trap storage/reflectron time-of-flight (IT/r eTOF) instrument. Using this hybrid configuration, detection of fast s eparations at very low detection levels has been successfully performe d for on-line separations of peptides and protein digests using electr ospray ionization. In this report, we review the current status in our laboratory of interfacing high-performance liquid chromatography, cap illary electrophoresis, and capillary electrochromatography to an IT/r eTOF-MS instrument and various applications that have been developed i nvolving this technology. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.