Nanoscale separations combined with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry: Sulfonamide determination

Nanoscale capillary liquid chromatography (nCLC) and capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) have been combined with quadrupole mass spectrometry via an electrospray ionization (ESI) interface. These methodologies have been applied to the separation and determination of a variety of sulfonamides. CZE/ESI/MS is the more rapid and sensitive technique, but nCLC/ESI/MS shows promise for the analysis of dilute samples. Ultimately, the two techniques provide complementary methods of analysis. The detection limits of these techniques in the full-scan mode are in the low picomole range. Dissociation of the sulfonamides can be induced by increasing the skimmer voltage. This provides a limited means of discriminating between compounds of identical molecular weight but, more important, provides fragments that could be used to confirm the presence of analyte within a sample.