Application of polydopamine-coated nylon capillary-channeled polymer fibers as a stationary phase for mass spectrometric phosphopeptide analysisCapillary-channeled polymer (C-CP) fibers are demonstrated as a selective stationary phase for phosphopeptide analysis via LC-MS. Taking advantage of the oxidative selfpolymerization of dopamine under alkaline conditions, a simple system involving a dilute aqueous solution of 0.2% w/v dopamine hydrochloride in 0.15% w/v TRIS buffer, pH 8.5 was utilized to coat polydopamine onto nylon 6 C-CP fibers. Confirmation of the polydopamine coating on the fibers (nylon-PDA) was made through attenuated total reflection-FTIR (ATR-FTIR) analysis. Imaging using SEM was also performed to examine the morphology and topography of the nylon-PDA. Subsequent loading of Fe 3+ to the nylon-PDA matrix was confirmed by SEM/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX). The Fe 3+ -bound nylon-PDA fibers packed in a microbore column format were tested in the offline preconcentration of phosphopeptides from a 1:100 mixture of β-casein/BSA digests for MALDI-TOF analysis. The packed column was also installed onto an HPLC system as a platform for the online sample clean-up and enrichment of phosphopeptides from a 1:1000 mixture of β-casein/BSA protein digests that were determined by subsequent ESI-MS analysis.Abbreviations: ATR-FTIR, attenuated total reflection-FTIR; C-CP, capillary-channeled polymer; EDX, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy; IMAC, immobilized metal affinity chromatography; IDA, iminodiacetic acid; MOAC, metal oxide affinity chromatography; NTA, nitriloacetic acid; PDA, polydopamine chiometry of protein phosphorylation [4]. In addition, phosphopeptides are known for their poor ionization efficiencies due to their associated negative charge. Moreover, the low abundance of phosphopeptides in complex peptide mixtures is also a challenge. In order to overcome these two technical difficulties, use of some form of sample clean-up is critically required to isolate and pre-concentrate phosphopeptides from complex peptide matrices [5].Among the different approaches of selective enrichment of phosphopeptides are immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) and metal oxide affinity chromatography (MOAC) [6]. IMAC utilizes the affinity of the phosphate groups in phosphopeptides to metal ions (Fe 3+ or Ga 3+ ) immobilized on the stationary phase via the acidic chelating ligands of iminodiacetic acid (IDA) or nitriloacetic acid (NTA) [7,8]. The conventional IMAC technique has two main disadvantages. First, it experiences possible leakage of metals during sample loading and washing steps. Second, the selectivity of the traditional IMAC adsorbents (which is typically low) is interfered by the non-phosphopeptides containing acidic amino acid residues (such as glutamate and aspartate) [8,9]. The latter can be partially addressed by methyl esterification of carboxylic acid groups of peptides; however,