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Updated: May 29, 2026

Sheathless Capillary Electrophoresis–Mass Spectrometry for Metabolic Profiling of Biological Samples
Published on: October 1, 2016
Dating silk by capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry
Mehdi Moini1, Kathryn Klauenberg, Mary Ballard
1Museum Conservation Institute, Smithsonian Institution, 4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, Maryland 20746-2863, USA. MoiniM@si.edu
Abstract:
A new capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry (CE-MS) technique is introduced for age estimation of silk textiles based on amino acid racemization rates. With an L to D conversion half-life of ~2500 years for silk (B. mori) aspartic acid, the technique is capable of dating silk textiles ranging in age from several decades to a few-thousand-years-old. Analysis required only ~100 μg or less of silk fiber. Except for a 2 h acid hydrolysis at 110 °C, no other sample preparation is required. The CE-MS analysis takes ~20 min, consumes only nanoliters of the amino acid mixture, and provides both amino acid composition profiles and D/L ratios for ~11 amino acids.
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