Online coupling of capillary electrophoresis with direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry.

The online coupling of capillary electrophoresis with ambient direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) was realized by a coaxial tip interface. The analytes eluted from capillary electrophoresis (CE) were directly ionized by the metastable helium flux produced by DART and transferred into MS for the detection, with which the online separation and simultaneous detection were achieved. The CE-DART-MS can tolerate higher concentrations of detergents and salts than traditional CE-electrospray ionization (ESI)-MS and avoided the difficulties of collecting CE effluent and cleaning the interface, which simplified the experimental procedures and shortened the analysis time. The performance of the technique was successfully verified by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) using a mixture of 4-aminoantipyrine, zolmitriptan, and quinine. This online technique showed good repeatability with the relative standard deviations (RSDs; n = 5) of 0.56-1.23% for the retention times and 2.01-7.41% for the peak areas. The quantitative analysis of 4-aminoantipyrine was accomplished in the range of 0.01-0.50 mg/mL with the linear correlation coefficient of 0.9995 and limit of detection of 14.7 fmol. Compared with CE-ESI-MS, the ion suppression effects of nonvolatile salts and detergents were efficiently minimized. The signal intensity remained constant when the concentrations reached 100 mM for sodium borate and 30 mM for SDS (in 30 mM sodium borate buffer). In addition, the proposed method was successfully applied to the detection of the endogenous caffeine in Chinese white tea.