PSEUDO-ELECTROCHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY - A NEW ALTERNATIVE

Pseudo-electrochromatography (pEC) is a separation method that is based on the combination of the chromatographic and electrophoretic behaviour of compounds. This combination enables tuning of the selectivity without changing the composition of the mobile phase. The loadability of pEC is considerably higher than for capillary electrophoresis, which makes the coupling to mass spectrometry very attractive. The applicability of the method was examined for some nucleotides, alkaloids and an antiviral drug as model compounds. The method appeared to be able to replace a modifier gradient elution in reversed-phase systems, thus circumventing the use of an expensive gradient system. pEC has been combined with continuous-flow fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry, as is demonstrated with some examples showing the improvement in the performance of the total system.