Modification of a commercial electrospray nebulizer for operation in a liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry system at flow rates in the low mu L/min range

A simple and inexpensive approach to convert the electrospray nebulizer of a commercial liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) system (HP 110 0) to accommodate lower flow rates has been proposed and evaluated. This mo dification consists of simply replacing the nebulizer needle by a commercia lly available stainless steel needle with a smaller internal diameter. Expe riments were conducted in order to optimize operational parameters. Using t wo different internal diameter needle sizes, flow rates ranging from 1 to 2 50 muL/min could be accommodated. The modification presented allows an exte nsion of the range of compatible flow rates without major modification of t he standard design of the interface. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.