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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Sheathless Capillary Electrophoresis–Mass Spectrometry for Metabolic Profiling of Biological Samples
Published on: October 1, 2016
A silica-based monolithic column in capillary HPLC and CEC coupled with ESI-MS or electrospray-atmospheric-pressure
Stefan Droste1, Marc Schellenträger, Marc Constapel
1Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany.
Abstract:
We describe the successful coupling of CEC and capillary HPLC with the recently developed atmospheric-pressure laser ionization (APLI) method. APLI is suitable for selectively and sensitively ionizing nonpolar aromatic compounds at ambient pressure for subsequent mass-selective detection. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons used as analytes are first separated either by CEC on a silica-based monolithic column or by capillary HPLC. The eluent, along with a sheath flow, is volatilized by microelectrospray and then selectively ionized by excimer laser (KrF*) radiation via two-photon excitation. A QTOF-MS is used as mass-selective detector. This interface combination makes soft ionization of thermally labile nonpolar aromatic analytes possible.
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