Direct coupling of a nano-high-performance liquid chromatography column to an ion trap designed for a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry system

The possibility of direct liquid injection inside an ion trap, designed for a commercial gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) system, has been tested by continuous solution flow and by loop injection. Instrumental parameters such as solution flows and sample concentration, and temperatures of transfer line, ion trap and ion trap housing, have been optimised. Different configurations of the interface capillary have been also considered, and the best results have been obtained by the injection of the solution coaxially with a helium flow. The experimental arrangement leads to the detection of good quality electron (EI) and chemical (CI) ionisation spectra of low to medium polarity compounds, at µM levels. The direct coupling of a nano-HPLC column with the modified transfer line led on one hand to EI spectra which were successfully employed for library searches, and on the other to CI data directly comparable to results achieved by a commercial HPLC/MS system operating under ESI conditions.