There has recently been increased interest in coupling ion chromatography (IC) to high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) to enable highly sensitive and selective analysis. Herein, the first comprehensive study focusing on the direct coupling of suppressed IC to HRMS without the need for post-suppressor organic solvent modification is presented. Chromatographic selectivity and added HRMS sensitivity offered by organic solvent-modified IC eluents on a modern hyper-crosslinked polymeric anion-exchange resin (IonPac AS18) are shown using isocratic eluents containing 5–50 mM hydroxide with 0–80% methanol or acetonitrile for a range of low molecular weight anions (<165 Da). Comprehensive experiments on IC thermodynamics over a temperature range between 20–45 °C with the eluent containing up to 60% of acetonitrile or methanol revealed markedly different retention behaviour and selectivity for the selected analytes on the same polymer based ion-exchange resin. Optimised sensitivity with HRMS was achieved with as low as 30–40% organic eluent content. Analytical performance characteristics are presented and compared with other IC-MS based works. This study also presents the first application of IC-HRMS to forensic detection of trace low-order anionic explosive residues in latent human fingermarks.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	ion chromatography, high resolution mass spectrometry, organic solvent, temperature, anions
Research Division:	Chemical Sciences
Research Group:	Analytical Chemistry
Research Field:	Separation Science
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding Knowledge in the Chemical Sciences
Author:	Nesterenko, PN (Professor Pavel Nesterenko)
ID Code:	100246
Year Published:	2015
Web of Science® Times Cited:	7
Deposited By:	Chemistry
Deposited On:	2015-05-07
Last Modified:	2017-10-29
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