Automated dry fraction collection for microbore high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

A method is presented for the collection of dry fractions from a microbore high-performance liquid chromatographic column. These fractions are electrosprayed onto a foil strip that is being moved past the spray in steps. These solid deposits are in a form which is compatible with solid-phase secondary-ion mass spectrometry, in particular the time-of-flight instrument that has been developed in our laboratory. Because the type of ionization used in static secondary-ion spectrometry is essentially non-destructive, the non-volatile eluent is available for any other analytical method after mass analysis. The chromatogram of a mixture of peptides was re-constructed from the mass spectra of fractions collected in this way. This chromatogram is shown and its features are examined.