Open‐source add‐on kit for automation of zone elution in planar chromatography

Abstract

Rationale High‐throughput capacity, maximal efficiency and automation are missing key features for thin‐layer chromatography/high‐performance thin‐layer chromatography‐mass spectrometry (TLC/HPTLC‐MS) hyphenations. So far, commercial interfaces have been operated without an automated positioning system. Hence, a 3D‐printed, fully automated, open‐source add‐on user interface was built for elution‐head‐based TLC/HPTLC‐MS. Methods Precise plate movement, batch‐wise zone elution, and cleaning processes were automated and synchronized with MS data acquisition. The elution head cleaning was made adjustable in intensity and interval, and remaining elution solvent or particles were thoroughly blown out of the MS transfer line. An adjustable short gas beam across the elution zone was integrated to avoid contamination or leakage by released layer particles, or zone distortion by residual eluent flow when lifting the elution head. Results By clicking on zones on the chromatogram, these were selected for consecutive automated positioning below the elution head, sealing and elution. Mean spatial deviations of the positioning on 294 target zones were determined to be 160 μm for track‐wise and 190 μm for randomized zone positioning order. Reproducibility of the elution of butyl paraben zones (5.4%, 10 ng/band, n = 70) and its quantitative performance (R2 = 0.992–0.999, 5–50 ng/band) were proven. Conclusions The stand‐alone electronic system design and the compact footprint were achieved by a minimalistic positioning system and internally installed valves. The open‐source OC_manager software opened new perspectives in terms of combining MS data evaluation with previous HPTLC results. The successfully demonstrated TLC/HPTLC‐MS automation presents a highly efficient, user‐independent hyphenation for a broad range of application fields.

Elevating Chemistry Research with a Modern Electronics Toolkit

“…For this purpose, they utilized the electronic tools mentioned above. For example, Habe and Morlock developed a 3D-printed, fully automated, and opensource thin-layer chromatography interface for MS. 347 They installed four magnetic valves for the control of basic and advanced pneumatic functions. A stepper motor and a mechanical endstop sensor were used for precise movement of the translational stage.…”

Leveraging 3D printing to enhance mass spectrometry: A review

“…For example, 3D-printed systems have been demonstrated for the online, solvent-based sampling of surfaces with a liquid micro-junction surface-sampling probe (LMJSSP) [62,81]. Moreover, 3D-printed modules for connecting and supporting subsequent setup modules have also been published, such as the connection between a microfluidic enzymatic chip and a UHPLC-MS system [20], as well as an entire platform to couple thinlayer chromatographic separation to MS analysis of the individual bands by elution-head-based extraction [83].…”

“…3D printing can also be used to integrate and house the different parts of an experimental or prototypical setup; an overview is given in Table 6. Such use of 3D printing does not generally add new functionality, but nonetheless helps to reproducibly and conveniently assemble components and conduct experiments [83,104,105]. An early example of an integrative housing describes a method to connect digital microfluidics to MS (Fig.…”

Ultrahigh-Throughput ESI-MS: Sampling Pushed to Six Samples per Second by Acoustic Ejection Mass Spectrometry

“…This approach did not prevail for TLC-MS and thus, the corresponding elution head-based approaches dominated further developments of high-performance (HP)TLC-MS and their automation. 23,24 The geometry and orientation of the probe were further modified, and the term OPI was adopted alongside the term open-port probe (OPP) 25,26 and open-port sampling interface (OPSI). 27 These interfaces were used for the direct introduction of liquids, 26,28 solid-phase microextraction (SPME) devices, 25,29 samples via immediate drop on demand technology (I-DOT), 30 and material from transmission geometry laser ablation 31 into the carrier flow.…”