Coupling of a supercritical fluid chromatography system to a hybrid (Q-TOF 2) mass spectrometer: on-line accurate mass measurements

This note describes a simple and economical method to couple a supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) system (Berger Instruments, US) with a high-resolution hybrid mass spectrometer (Q-TOF 2; Micromass, UK). This experimental arrangement has three distinct advantages: (1) coupling between the two systems can be effected without the need for an interface or hardware modifications of either system, (ii) this experimental arrangement provides on-line accurate mass SFC/MS measurements which are indispensable for the characterisation of new chemical entities and unknown metabolites, and (iii) the characteristically fast spectral acquisition rate of the time-of-flight (TOF) analyser renders the present arrangement an important contribution to future semipreparative fraction collection setups which use mass spectrometry as a detector. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.