ENHANCING MASS SPECTROMETRY
SENSITIVITY BY REDUCING
CHROMATOGRAPHIC FLOW RATES
WITH IONKEY/MS
James P. Murphy, Jay Johnson, and
Paul D. Rainville, Waters Corporation
There is consistent pressure for scientists to achieve lower
limits of quantitation as many are limited by smaller
sample volumes available for analysis or are challenged
to detect more potent analytes in biological matrices.
This has led scientists to investigate microflow LC as an
alternative to standard flow LC (2.1-mm column format)
as this technique has shown to increase sensitivity and
ionization efficiency as well as reduce ion suppression.
This white paper will review the sensitivity benefits that
can be expected when operating at a microscale flow
rate with the Waters ionKey/MS™ System in comparison
to a 2.1-mm column format, as well as explain why this
signal enhancement is possible.
2
Figure 1. The size of the electrospray plume decreases as the flow rate
decreases. Top: Standard ESI source operated at 600 µL/min. Bottom:
ionKey/MS source operated at 3 µL/min.
Figure 2. Infusion of an 833 pg/mL solution of verapamil. Top: Flow of
600 µL/min into a standard ESI source. Bottom: Flow of 3 µL/min with
an ionKey/MS source. The higher flow exhibits a 27X increase in signal
response for infusion.
m/z
450
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454
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456
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458
459
460
%
0
100
m/z
450
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%
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INT RODUCTION
The need for greater sensitivity in an LC/MS analysis has driven
development of more efficient ion sources and ion optics in mass
spectrometers. Even with such advances, biological assays still
may demand greater sensitivity than what may be currently
available with a standard LC/MS system. Additional sensitivity
gains can be realized by reducing the amount of solvent flow
to the ion source while reducing the column diameter from a
traditional 2.1-mm diameter to a microflow format. At these
reduced flow rates, sensitivity gains of 10X to 20X can readily
be achieved.
At flow rates greater than 100 µL/min, a significant portion of
sensitivity is lost due to poor ionization efficiency and limited
sampling efficiency. An electrospray plume generated from
conventional LC flow rates can be quite broad and divergent.
The inlet to a mass spectrometer only has the ability to sample a
portion of the electrospray plume. Most commonly, this is done
by positioning the electrospray probe orthogonally to the inlet
and sampling on the edges of the plume where fine droplets
are present (Figure 1, top). As the solvent flow rate is reduced,
the electrospray plume decreases in size and becomes more
convergent (Figure 1, bottom). This allows the inlet of the mass
spectrometer to become more efficient and capture a greater
percentage of the plume. This results in an increase in ion signal.
Mass-sensitive detection, not concentration-sensitive
The increase in sensitivity or ion signal is roughly proportional to
the decrease in column diameter and flow rate.1 This behavior is
similar to a UV detector, which responds to the concentration of
the analyte in the mobile phase rather than the absolute amount or
mass of the analyte. This has led electrospray to be characterized
as a concentration-sensitive technique, even though it has been
generally understood that electrospray is a mass-sensitive
phenomena.2 Although concentration and sensitivity appear to
follow the same trend, the ion signal at low flow rates does not
increase as rapidly as the concentration of an analyte within the
mobile phase, showing that the two are not directly coupled.
In actuality, a mass spectrometer is a mass-flow-sensitive
detector3 where signal response is proportional to the amount of
sample reaching the detector per unit time. To illustrate this, an
infusion was performed with a constant concentration of analyte
at increasing flow rates (Figure 2). With the solution of analyte
(verapamil) maintained at the same concentration, the higher flow
rate results in a larger signal as there is a greater amount or mass
of the sample entering the mass spectrometer per unit time.
3
Concentration-sensitive behavior is only observed when analytes
are eluted as chromatographic peaks where lower flow rates result
in increased signal response. Under this condition, the same
amount of analyte is eluted from a column per unit time with
varying amounts of solvent. The lower solvent flow generates a
finer, less-disperse electrospray plume and allows for greater
sampling efficiency by the mass spectrometer.
Sensitivity enhancement scaling down
from 2.1-mm column format
To demonstrate the increase in sampling and ionization efficiency,
numerous analytes were analyzed at flow rates between 0.45
and 600 µL/min using a combination of commercially available
UPLC columns and prototype microfluidic devices (Table 1).
The flow rate for each column dimension was scaled according
to the square of the column’s internal diameter to maintain the
same linear velocity through the column. The signal response
are presented in area counts to eliminate possible differences
observed in peak height due to varying separation efficiencies and
post-column band broadening. The gain in area counts were all
compared to the equivalent separation in a 2.1-mm column.
Table 1. Screened flow rate combinations.
Table 2. Average sensitivity enhancement.
Column ID
Column Body
Flow Rates
2.1 mm
ACQUITY UPLC®
Column
200-600 µL/min
1.0 mm
ACQUITY UPLC
Column
150 µL/min
300 µm
PEEK-Sil
Capillary Column
12 µL/min
150 µm
iKey™
1-4 µL/min
75 µm
nanoACQUITY UPLC®
Capillary Column
450 nL/min
Column Diameter
Average Sensitivity
Enhancement, Small
Molecule/Peptides
Eluting Peak
Concentration
2.1 mm
1X
1X
1.0 mm
2X / 3X
4.4X
300 µm
3.2X / 6X
49X
150 µm
9X / 16X
196X
75 µm
50X / >100X
784X
Sensitivity gains were achieved for a variety of analytes by
comparing equal injection volumes by lowering the mobile phase
flow and column diameter from a 2.1-mm I.D. column format
(Figure 3). The average enhancement ranged from 2X to as much
as 50X for a series of small molecule pharmaceutical analytes,
depending on the flow rate (Figure 4).
The signal enhancement did not directly match the corresponding
increase in peak concentration at lower flow rates for each column
I.D. (Table 2).
Figure 3. The average signal enhancement with reducing column diameters and
flow rates in comparison to a 2.1-mm format for a series of small molecules
(lidocaine, propanolol, dextromethorphan, fluconazole, alprazolam, and
verapamil). All injections were made with the same concentration solution
and a volume of 1 µL.
Figure 4. The signal enhancement with the Waters iKey device in comparison
to a 2.1-mm format for a series of small molecules at flow rates from 1 to
4 µL/min (lidocaine, propanolol, dextromethorphan, fluconazole, alprazolam
and verapamil).
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0.1
1
10
100
1000
Sensitivity Improvement from 2.1-mm Scale
Flow Rate (µL/min)
75-µm I.D.
150-µm I.D.
300-µm I.D.
2.1-mm I.D.
1-mm I.D.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0
1
2
3
4
5
Ra
tio of
Sign
al
Re
sp
on
se
,
Ar
ea
(i
Ke
y/
2.1
mm)
iKey Flow Rate (µL/min)
Lidocaine
Propanolol
Dextromethorphan
Fluconazole
Alprazolam
Verapamil
The amount of signal enhancement varied depending on the
chemical properties of each analyte. The sensitivity enhancement
observed for a separation on a 150-µm I.D. Waters iKey separation
device, for instance, varied from 9X for verapamil, to 83X for
alprazolam at 1 µL/min (Figure 4).
4
Time
1.20
1.60
2.00
2.40
2.80
3.20
3.60
4.00
4.40
4.80
%
0
100
150-µm iKey
2.1-mm column
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0
1
2
3
4
5
Ra
tio of
Sign
al
Re
sp
on
se
,
Ar
ea
(i
Ke
y/
2.1
mm)
iKey Flow Rate (µL/min)
AEFVEVTK
VLGIDGGEGKEELFR
LVNELTEFAK
NVNDVIAPAFVK
VLYPNDNFFEGK
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Peak Width (s)
Flow Rate (µL/min)
Small Molecules Peptides
as compared to a 75-µm I.D. column format. The sharper peaks
provide better resolution and sensitivity realizing the true benefit
benefits of a UPLC® separation.
Figure 7. Average peak width for a small molecule separation (5-min gradient,
5 to 95 %B) and a peptide separation (10-min gradient, 5 to 45 %B).
SUMMARY
■
■
Sensitivity gains were observed for both small molecules
and peptides by comparing equal injection volumes with
reduced mobile phase flow and column diameter, from
2.1-mm to 150-µm I.D.
■
■
The signal enhancement realized at microliter/minute
flow rates in this study ranged from 2X to 83X and is
molecule-dependent.
■
■
The 150-µm iKey separation channel dimension offers
a unique balance between enhanced sensitivity and
optimal throughput.
A typical chromatogram comparing the Waters iKey with a 2.1-mm
column is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Chromatographic response of a 62.5-pg/mL injection of verapamil on
a 150-µm iKey separation device and a 2.1-mm column. The retention times
have been adjusted to better show the comparison.
It has been suggested that analytes with hydrophobic functional
groups of large molecular volume have increased droplet surface
affinity.4 This may account for the improvement in ESI response.
Peptides generally exhibited a better response as compared to
small molecules (Figure 6).
Figure 6. The signal enhancement with the Waters iKey device in comparison
to a 2.1-mm format for a series of tryptic peptides from an Enolase digest at a
flow rates from 1 to 4 µL/min.
The 150-µm iKey separation channel dimension appears to
be an inflection point where the observed sensitivity gain
begins to increase non-linearly with reduced flow rate (Figure 4).
At this scale, the flow rate can be altered from 1 to 4 µL/min
with minimal impact on chromatographic performance
(Figure 7). At nanoflow rates (< 1 µL/min), sensitivity gains
may be observed at the expense of instrument throughput.
The LC system volume (including sample loop) has a greater
impact on nanoflow separations (75-µm I.D.) and it creates a
gradient delay and long column equilibration time. The 150-µm
iKey separation channel dimension provides enhanced sensitivity
while maintaining rapid throughput. Additionally, improved
chromatography and narrower peaks are observed at 150-µm I.D.
Waters Corporation
34 Maple Street
Milford, MA 01757 U.S.A.
T: 1 508 478 2000
F: 1 508 872 1990
www.waters.com
Waters, The Science of What’s Possible, UPLC, ACQUITY UPLC,
and nanoACQUITY UPLC are registered trademarks of Waters
Corporation. ionKey/MS and iKey are trademarks of of Waters
Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
©2014 Waters Corporation. Produced in the U.S.A.
February 2014 720004967EN TC-PDF
References
1. G. Hopfgartner, K. Bean, J. Henion, and R Henry, J Chromatogr A, 647 (1993) 51.
2. T. R. Covey et al, R. Cole (Eds) Electrospray and MALDI Mass Spectrometry: Fundamentals Practicalities and
Biological Applications, Second Edition, Wiley and Sons Inc., 2010, 443.
3. B.L. Karger and P. Vouros, J Chromatogr, 323 (1985) 13.
4. C, G. Enke et al, Anal Chem, 72 (2000) 11.
