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The online hyphenation of chip-based high-performance liquid chromatography (chip-HPLC) with ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) via fully integrated electrospray emitters is introduced. A custom-built drift tube IMS with shifted potentials was developed in order to keep the IMS orifice electrically grounded, allowing for a robust coupling with chip-HPLC. Proof-of-concept studies with the newly developed analytical setup revealed the suitability of IMS as a promising and powerful detection concept for chip-based separation techniques. Comparison of IMS with fluorescence detection and electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) allowed a more detailed characterization of the IMS as a new detection method for chip-HPLC. Moreover, the analysis of a mixture consisting of three isobaric antidepressants demonstrated the performance of chip-HPLC/IMS as a miniaturized two-dimensional separation technique.

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We report the first hyphenation of chip-electrochromatography (ChEC) with ion mobility spectrometry (IMS). This approach combines the separation power of two electrokinetically driven separation techniques, the first in liquid phase and the second in gas phase, with a label-free detection of the analytes. For achieving this, a microfluidic glass chip incorporating a monolithic separation column, a nanofluidic liquid junction for providing post-column electrical contact, and a monolithically integrated electrospray emitter was developed. This device was successfully coupled to a custom-built high-resolution drift tube IMS with shifted potentials. After proof-of-concept studies in which a mixture of five model compounds was analyzed in less than 80 s, this first ChEC−IMS system was applied to a more complex sample, the analysis of herbicides spiked in the wine matrix. The use of ChEC before IMS detection not only facilitated the peak allocation and increased the peak capacity but also enabled analyte quantification. As both, ChEC and IMS work at ambient conditions and are driven by high voltages, no bulky pumping systems are needed, neither for the hydrodynamic pumping of the mobile phase as in high-performance liquid chromatography nor for generating a vacuum system as in mass spectrometry. Accordingly, the approach has great potential as a portable analytical system for field analysis of complex mixtures.

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We introduce the coupling of droplet microfluidics and ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) to address the challenges of label-free and chemical-specific detection of compounds in individual droplets. In analogy to the established use of mass spectrometry, droplet−IMS coupling can be also achieved via electrospray ionization but with significantly less instrumental effort. Because IMS instruments do not require high-vacuum systems, they are very compact, cost-effective, and robust, making them an ideal candidate as a chemical-specific end-of-line detector for segmented flow experiments. Herein, we demonstrate the successful coupling of droplet microfluidics with a custom-built high-resolution drift tube IMS system for monitoring chemical reactions in nL-sized droplets in an oil phase. The analytes contained in each droplet were assigned according to their characteristic ion mobility with limit of detections down to 200 nM to 1 μM and droplet frequencies ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 Hz. Using a custom sheath flow electrospray interface, we have further achieved the chemical-specific monitoring of a biochemical transformation catalyzed by a few hundred yeast cells, at single droplet level.

Every drift tube ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) has an optimum drift voltage to reach maximum resolving power. This optimum depends, among other things, on the temporal and spatial width of the injected ion packet and the pressure within the IMS. A reduction of the spatial width of the injected ion packet leads to improved resolving power, higher peak amplitudes when operating the IMS at optimum resolving power, and thus a better signal-to-noise ratio despite the reduced number of injected ions. Hereby, the performance of electrospray ionization (ESI)-IMS can be considerably improved. By setting the ion shutter opening time to just 5 μs and slightly increasing the pressure, a high resolving power R P > 150 can be achieved with a given drift length of just 75 mm. At such high resolving power, even a mixture of the herbicides isoproturon and chlortoluron having similar ion mobility can be well separated despite short drift length.

Low trace amounts of sevoflurane were detected in both PACUs equipped with controlled air exchange systems. Occupational exposure limits were not exceeded.