Design improvements for low flow electrospray mass spectrometry of biomolecules.

摘要

Low flow electrospray ionization (ESI) has grown rapidly since its inception less than a decade ago. Low flow ESI offers the user numerous advantages compared to conventional ESI, namely decreases in sample consumption with an increase in sensitivity and lower detection limits. These advantages are exploited for the analysis of biomolecules, particularly with in vivo sample collection where sample volumes are on the order of a few microliters and analyte concentrations can be below the detection limit of other analytical techniques.; This dissertation describes the development of low flow electrospray source interfaces for commercial mass spectrometers. These sources were then used to analyze the performance characteristics of a newly developed conductive low flow electrospray emitter coating-evaporated graphite. This new type of coating was further compared to commercially available low flow electrospray emitters to demonstrate improvements in emitter technology. Evaporated graphite will help further the expansion of low flow electrospray techniques for the analysis of biomolocules.