A sheath flow gating interface for the on-line coupling of solid-phase extraction with capillary electrophoresis

Progress in on-line, at-line, and in-line coupling of sample treatment with capillary and microchip electrophoresis over the past 10 years: A review

The review presents an evaluation of the development of on-line, at-line and in-line sample treatment coupled with capillary and microchip electrophoresis over the last 10 years. In the first part, it describes different types of flow-gating interfaces (FGI) such as cross-FGI, coaxial-FGI, sheet-flow-FGI, and air-assisted-FGI and their fabrication using molding into polydimethylsiloxane and commercially available fittings. The second part deals with the coupling of capillary and microchip electrophoresis with microdialysis, solid-phase, liquid-phase, and membrane based extraction techniques. It mainly focuses on modern techniques such as extraction across supported liquid membrane, electroextraction, single drop microextraction, head space microextraction, and microdialysis with high spatial and temporal resolution. Finally, the design of sequential electrophoretic analysers and fabrication of SPE microcartridges with monolithic and molecularly imprinted polymeric sorbents are discussed. Applications include the monitoring of metabolites, neurotransmitters, peptides and proteins in body fluids and tissues to study processes in living organisms, as well as the monitoring of nutrients, minerals and waste compounds in food, natural and wastewater.

Capillary Electrophoresis as a Monitoring Tool for Flow Composition Determination

Flow analysis is the science of performing quantitative analytical chemistry in flowing streams. Because of its efficiency and speed of analysis, capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a prospective method for the monitoring of a flow composition withdrawn from various processes (e.g., occurring in bioreactors, fermentations, enzymatic assays, and microdialysis samples). However, interfacing CE to a various flow of interest requires further study. In this paper, several ingenious approaches on interfacing flow from various chemical or bioprocesses to a capillary electrophoresis instrument are reviewed. Most of these interfaces can be described as computer-controlled autosamplers. Even though most of the described interfaces waste too many samples, many interesting and important applications of the devices are reported. However, the lack of commercially available devices prevents the wide application of CE for flow analysis. On the contrary, this fact opens up a potential avenue for future research in the field of flow sampling by CE.

Parts-per-trillion detection of harmala alkaloids in Undaria pinnatifida algae by on-line solid phase extraction capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry

β-carboline alkaloids of the harmala group (HAlks)-a family of compounds with pharmacologic effects-can be found at trace levels (<25 μg kg-1 algae) in the edible invasive algae Undaria pinnatifida, known commonly as wakame. In this study, we present a simple and sensitive method to detect and quantify at low parts-per-trillion levels the six HAlks more frequently found in those plants. The method is based on on-line solid phase extraction capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry using a C18 sorbent. First, the methodology was optimized and validated with standard solutions through the use of ultraviolet (UV) and mass spectrometry (MS) detection. Second, the optimized method for MS detection was applied to an analysis of the HAlks in U. pinnatifida extracts. The method achieved limits of detection between 2 and 77 pg mL-1 for standards, producing an analyte preconcentration of about 1000-times in comparison to CE-MS. Some matrix effects were observed for the complex wakame extracts, especially for the most polar HAlks (harmol and harmalol), which bear aromatic hydroxyl groups. Harmine, harmaline, and norharmane were not detected in the algal extracts, whereas harmane was found at 70 pg mL-1 (70 ng kg-1 dry algae). The results underscored that C18-SPE-CE-MS may be considered as a powerful method to detect trace levels of alkaloids and other bioactive small molecules in complex plant extracts.