Development of Directly Coupled Supercritical Fluid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry with Self-Spouting and Vacuum Nebulizing Assisted Interface

Abstract

Supercritical fluid chromatograph (SFC) with a fused silica separation column (0.5mm I.D.×70cm) packed with ODS-Q3 (30-50μm) was directly coupled with a quadrupole mass spectrometer (MS) through a vacuum nebulizing interface originally developed for the combination of high performance liquid chromathograph (HPLC) with MS. Mixtures of hexane and ethanol were used as the mobile phase for SFC at a flow rate of 40μl/min (50kg/cm²). The column temperatures were maintained above the critical ones of the mobile phase between 260 and 280°C. Introduction of line filters to remove possible small particles in the SFC effluent and the subtle control of the optimum flow and/or the pressure for the SFC column enabled fairly long term stable operation for this SFC-MS system. Thus developed new system was successfully applied to the analysis of various samples such as styrene oligomers, phthalates, triglycerides, and polyethylene glycol derivatives.