Development and evaluation of an interface for coupled capillary supercritical fluid chromatography/magnetic sector mass spectrometry : application to thermally unstable and high molecular mass compounds

An interface for coupling supercritical fluid chromatography to a magnetic sector mass spectrometer was developed and evaluated. The interface is based on direct introduction of the mobile phase, carbon dioxide, into the ion-source of the mass spectrometer. The SFC-MS system was optimized with respect to the signal-to-noise ratio. Under optimized conditions, the estimated detection limit for n-pentadecane is approximately 30 ppm. Spectra obtained in the electron-impact ionization mode show a very good similarity with library spectra. The performance of the SFC-MS system was evaluated by the analysis of a number of test mixtures. A sample containing several low molecular mass, thermally unstable compounds, which could neither be analyzed by GC-MS nor by LC-MS, was analyzed. Also for the analysis of high molecular mass compounds, the coupled system showed a good performance.