Comparison of two low flow interfaces for measurement of mobilities and stability constants by affinity capillary...

Affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE) is typically used for the determination of stability constant, K_st, of weak to moderately strong complexes. Sensitive detection such as mass spectrometry (MS) is required for extension of ACE methodology for estimation of K_st of stronger complexes. Consequently, an efficient interface for hyphenation of CE with MS detection is necessary. For evaluation of interfaces for electrospray ionization mass spectrometric (ESI/MS) detection in ACE conditions, potassium-crown ether complexation was used as model system. The effective mobilities of the crown ether ligands and the K_st of their potassium complexes were measured/determined by ACE-ESI/MS using two lab-made interfaces: (i) a sheathless porous tip CE-ESI/MS interface and (ii) a nano-sheath liquid flow CE-ESI/MS interface, and, in turn, compared with those obtained by ACE with UV spectrophotometric detection. Apparent stability constant of potassium-crown ether complexes in 60/40 (v/v) methanol/water mixed solvent, pH* 5.5, was about 1300 L/mol for dibenzo-18-crown-6, 1600 L/mol for benzo-18-crown-6 and 5200 L/mol for 18-crown-6 ligands, respectively. It was observed that electrophoretic mobilities from CE-MS experiments differ from reference values determined by UV detection by ∼7% depending on the CE-MS interface used. Good agreement of CE-MS and CE-UV data was achieved for nano-sheath liquid flow interface, in which the spray potential and the CE separation potential can be effectively decoupled. As for sheathless porous tip interface, a correction procedure involving a mobility marker has been proposed. It provides typically only ca. 1% difference of effective mobilities and K_st values obtained from CE-MS data as compared to those received by the reference ACE-UV method.