Fast capillary electrophoresis—ion spray mass spectrometric determination of sulfonylureas

Abstract

This paper describes the use of a simple, laboratory-made capillary electrophoresis (CE) system equipped with relatively short (25–35 cm) capillaries that may be coupled to a pneumatically assisted electrospray (ion spray) interface for separations with on-line mass spectrometric (MS) detection. Sulfonylurea crop protection chemicals were used as model compounds to demonstrate the utility of the CEMS system described. By using 35-cm fused-silica capillaries the CEMS determination of an eight-component mixture of these compounds was accomplished within 5 min. In addition, on-line CEMS under tandem mass spectrometric conditions (CEMSMS) was shown to give full-scan collision-induced mass spectra from 30-pmol levels of these compounds.