A microchip structure etched on a glass substrate for packed column solid-phase extraction (SPE) and capillary electrochromatography (CEC) is described. A 200 microm long, octadecylsilane (ODS) packed column was secured using two different approaches: solvent lock or polymer entrapment. The former method was utilized for SPE while the latter approach was applied for CEC. In SPE, the ODS packed chamber gave a detection limit of 70 fM for a nonpolar BODIPY (493/503) dye when concentrated for 3 min at an electroosmotic flow rate of 4.14 nL/min, compared to 30 pM for this detector without the SPE step. SPE beds showed reproducible, linear calibration curves (R(2) = 0.9989) between 1 and 100 pM BODIPY at fixed preconcentration times. Breakthrough curves for the 330 pL (ODS-packed) bed indicated a capacity for BODIPY dye of 8.1 x 10(-14) mmol, or 0.25 mmol dye per liter of bed. The ODS-chamber could also be used to analyze dilute amino acid and peptide solutions. In the CEC format, two neutral dyes (BODIPY and acridine orange) were baseline-separated in an isocratic run with a theoretical plate count of 84 (420 000 plates/m) and a reduced plate height of about 1. A labeled peptide was also analyzed by CEC, using the acidic eluent (84% acetonitrile, and 26% aqueous trifluoroacetic acid (0.05%)) preferred for peptide separations on ODS-coated silica particles.

An interface design is presented that facilitates automated sample introduction into an electrokinetic microchip, without perturbing the liquids within the microfluidic device. The design utilizes an interface flow channel with a volume flow resistance that is 0.54-4.1 x 10(6) times lower than the volume flow resistance of the electrokinetic fluid manifold used for mixing, reaction, separation, and analysis. A channel, 300 microm deep, 1 mm wide and 15-20 mm long, was etched in glass substrates to create the sample introduction channel (SIC) for a manifold of electrokinetic flow channels in the range of 10-13 microm depth and 36-275 microm width. Volume flow rates of up to 1 mL/min were pumped through the SIC without perturbing the solutions within the electrokinetic channel manifold. Calculations support this observation, suggesting a leakage flow to electroosmotic flow ratio of 0.1:1% in the electrokinetic channels, arising from 66-700 microL/min pressure-driven flow rates in the SIC. Peak heights for capillary electrophoresis separations in the electrokinetic flow manifold showed no dependence on whether the SIC pump was on or off. On-chip mixing, reaction and separation of anti-ovalbumin and ovalbumin could be performed with good quantitative results, independent of the SIC pump operation. Reproducibility of injection performance, estimated from peak height variations, ranged from 1.5-4%, depending upon the device design and the sample composition.

Integration of a packed column onto a microchip for performance of capillary electrochromatography (CEC) is described. The quartz device incorporated a cross-injector, and a double weir trapping design for formation of 1, 2 and 5 mm long CEC columns. Three fluorescent dyes were baseline-resolved with plate numbers of 330,(330,000 plates/m; height equivalent to a theoretical plate, H = 3.0 microm) for BODIPY 493/503, 360 (360,000 plates/m; H = 2.8 microm) for rhodamine 123 and 244 (244,000 plates/m; H = 4.1 microm) for acridine orange (AO) with 500 V applied on a 1 mm long column. The 2 mm column yielded approximately 1.8 times more theoretical plates than did the 1 mm column, when operated at the same flow rate. Van Deemter plots were obtained for the three column lengths, showing increased plate height for the 5 mm length. A 2 mm column gave peak height and area relative standard deviation (RSD) values of 2.5 and 3.3%, respectively, as averages for the three dyes (n = 15). The RSD for the dye retention times was 1% (n = 6) over one day, and 3% (n = 30) over five days. Indirect fluorescence detection of thiourea and of amino acids was possible using a neutral indicator dye (BODIPY 493/503), with a detection limit of 10 microM for amino acids.

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