Rapid and Convenient Substance Extractions Directly into MS

The new Camag TLC-MS Interface is a versatile instrument for extracting compounds from a TLC/HPTLC plate and feeding them into a mass spectrometer for substance identification or structure elucidation. Surveys have shown that not all samples can be processed by HPLC-MS or HPLC-DAD systems alone - due to no or low detection of the compounds or impurities in the UV range, a heavy matrix load, or a lack of MS compatibility with the solvents that are necessary for the HPLC separation. In such cases the addition of TLC/HPTLC to the system may be the ideal solution. In the past unknown substances were scraped off the TLC/HPTLC plate, eluted into a tube and transferred into the MS. Now a convenient and universal TLC-MS Interface is available which can semi-automatically extract zones of interest and direct them online into a HPLC-MS system.

The device can be connected to any brand of LC-coupled mass spectrometer. The semiautomatic TLC-MS Interface is quickly and easily connected (by two fittings) to any LCcoupled MS without adjustments or mass spectrometer modifications. In lieu of plate scraping Substances of interest are extracted directly from a TLC/HPTLC then pumped into the MS, producing within a minute sensitive MS signals per substance zone. The interface extracts the complete substance zone with its depth profile, allowing detections comparable to HPLC down to the pg/zone range.