Development of a low-flow multiplexed interface for capillary electrophoresis/electrospray ion trap mass spectrometry using sequential spray.

A multiplexed CE-MS interface using four low-flow sheath liquid ESI sprayers has been developed. Because of the limited space between the low-flow sprayers and the entrance aperture of the ESI source, multichannel analysis is difficult using conventional rotating plate approaches. Instead, a multiplexed low-flow system was achieved by applying an ESI potential sequentially to the four low-flow sprayers, resulting in only one sprayer being sprayed at any given time. The synchronization of the scan event and the voltage relays was accomplished by using the data acquisition signal from the IT mass spectrometer. This synchronization resulted in the ESI voltage being sequentially applied to each of the four sprayers according to the corresponding scan event. With this design, a four-fold increase in analytical throughput was achieved. Because of the use of low-flow interfaces, this multiplexed system has superior sensitivity than a rotating plate design using conventional sheath liquid interfaces. The multiplexed design presented has the potential to be applied to other low-flow multiplexed systems, such as multiplexed capillary LC and multiplexed CEC.