Capillary-Based Instrument for the Simultaneous Measurement of Solution Viscosity and Solute Diffusion Coefficient at Pressures up to 2000 bar and Implications for Ultrahigh Pressure Liquid Chromatography

Liquid phase detection in the miniature scale. Microfluidic and capillary scale measurement and separation systems. A tutorial review

Microfluidic and capillary devices are increasingly being used in analytical applications while their overall size keeps decreasing. Detection sensitivity for these microdevices gains more importance as device sizes and consequently, sample volumes, decrease. This paper reviews optical, electrochemical, electrical, and mass spectrometric detection methods that are applicable to capillary scale and microfluidic devices, with brief introduction to the principles in each case. Much of this is considered in the context of separations. We do consider theoretical aspects of separations by open tubular liquid chromatography, arguably the most potentially fertile area of separations that has been left fallow largely because of lack of scale-appropriate detection methods. We also examine the theoretical basis of zone electrophoretic separations. Optical detection methods discussed include UV/Vis absorbance, fluorescence, chemiluminescence and refractometry. Amperometry is essentially the only electrochemical detection method used in microsystems. Suppressed conductance and especially contactless conductivity (admittance) detection are in wide use for the detection of ionic analytes. Microfluidic devices, integrated to various mass spectrometers, including ESI-MS, APCI-MS, and MALDI-MS are discussed. We consider the advantages and disadvantages of each detection method and compare the best reported limits of detection in as uniform a format as the available information allows. While this review pays more attention to recent developments, our primary focus has been on the novelty and ingenuity of the approach, regardless of when it was first proposed, as long as it can be potentially relevant to miniature platforms.

Retention and effective diffusion of model metabolites on porous graphitic carbon

The study of metabolites in biological samples is of high interest for a wide range of biological and pharmaceutical applications. Reversed phase liquid chromatography is a common technique used for the separation of metabolites, but it provides little retention for polar metabolites. An alternative to C18 bonded phases, porous graphitic carbon has the ability to provide significant retention for both non-polar and polar analytes. The goal of this work is to study the retention and effective diffusion properties of porous graphitic carbon, to see if it is suitable for the wide injection bands and long run times associated with long, packed capillary-scale separations. The retention of a set of standard metabolites was studied for both stationary phases over a wide range of mobile phase conditions. This data showed that porous graphitic carbon benefits from significantly increased retention (often >100 fold) under initial gradient conditions for these metabolites, suggesting much improved ability to focus a wide injection band at the column inlet. The effective diffusion properties of these columns were studied using peak-parking experiments with the standard metabolites under a wide range of retention conditions. Under the high retention conditions, which can be associated with retention after injection loading for gradient separations, Deff/Dm∼0.1 for both the C18-bonded and porous graphitic carbon columns. As C18 bonded particles are widely, and successfully utilized for long gradient separations without issue of increasing peak width from longitudinal diffusion, this suggests that porous graphitic carbon should be amenable for long runtime gradient separations as well.

Recent advances in capillary ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography

In the twenty years since its initial demonstration, capillary ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) has proven to be one of most powerful separation techniques for the analysis of complex mixtures. This review focuses on the most recent advances made since 2010 towards increasing the performance of such separations. Improvements in capillary column preparation techniques that have led to columns with unprecedented performance are described. New stationary phases and phase supports that have been reported over the past decade are detailed, with a focus on their use in capillary formats. A discussion on the instrument developments that have been required to ensure that extra-column effects do not diminish the intrinsic efficiency of these columns during analysis is also included. Finally, the impact of these capillary UHPLC topics on the field of proteomics and ways in which capillary UHPLC may continue to be applied to the separation of complex samples are addressed.

Implementation of high slurry concentration and sonication to pack high-efficiency, meter-long capillary ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography columns

Slurry packing capillary columns for ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography is complicated by many interdependent experimental variables. Previous results have suggested that combination of high slurry concentration and sonication during packing would create homogeneous bed microstructures and yield highly efficient capillary columns. Herein, the effect of sonication while packing very high slurry concentrations is presented. A series of six, 1m×75μm internal diameter columns were packed with 200mg/mL slurries of 2.02μm bridged-ethyl hybrid silica particles. Three of the columns underwent sonication during packing and yielded highly efficient separations with reduced plate heights as low as 1.05.

Larger voids in mechanically stable, loose packings of 1.3μm frictional, cohesive particles: Their reconstruction, statistical analysis, and impact on separation efficiency

Lateral transcolumn heterogeneities and the presence of larger voids in a packing (comparable to the particle size) can limit the preparation of efficient chromatographic columns. Optimizing and understanding the packing process provides keys to better packing structures and column performance. Here, we investigate the slurry-packing process for a set of capillary columns packed with C18-modified, 1.3μm bridged-ethyl hybrid porous silica particles. The slurry concentration used for packing 75μm i.d. fused-silica capillaries was increased gradually from 5 to 50mg/mL. An intermediate concentration (20mg/mL) resulted in the best separation efficiency. Three capillaries from the set representing low, intermediate, and high slurry concentrations were further used for three-dimensional bed reconstruction by confocal laser scanning microscopy and morphological analysis of the bed structure. Previous studies suggest increased slurry concentrations will result in higher column efficiency due to the suppression of transcolumn bed heterogeneities, but only up to a critical concentration. Too concentrated slurries favour the formation of larger packing voids (reaching the size of the average particle diameter). Especially large voids, which can accommodate particles from>90% of the particle size distribution, are responsible for a decrease in column efficiency at high slurry concentrations. Our work illuminates the increasing difficulty of achieving high bed densities with small, frictional, cohesive particles. As particle size decreases interparticle forces become increasingly important and hinder the ease of particle sliding during column packing. While an optimal slurry concentration is identified with respect to bed morphology and separation efficiency under conditions in this work, our results suggest adjustments of this concentration are required with regard to particle size, surface roughness, column dimensions, slurry liquid, and external effects utilized during the packing process (pressure protocol, ultrasound, electric fields).

New methods based on capillary electrophoresis for in vitro evaluation of protein tau phosphorylation by glycogen synthase kinase 3-β

The hyperphosphorylation of tau protein is associated with the development of the neuronal pathology of Alzheimer's disease. As most conventional methods study only particular phosphorylation sites of tau, it is necessary to develop a simple and reliable assay to determine the phosphorylation of tau at multiple sites. Capillary electrophoresis (CE)-based enzymatic assays are not yet used to monitor tau phosphorylation. The present work aims to develop CE-based assays to evaluate tau phosphorylation by the glycogen synthase kinase 3-β (GSK3β). A novel pre-capillary CE assay was first developed. An in-capillary CE-based enzymatic assay was also used since this approach is known to be time- and cost- effective. The enzymatic reaction was monitored by quantifying the product adenosine 5'- diphosphate (ADP). The influence of two classes of glycosaminoglycan (GAG), namely heparin and heparan sulfate, on the phosphorylation reaction was also assessed. Results obtained by both CE approaches were comparable and in excellent agreement with those reported in the literature using conventional radiometric and immunoblotting methods. In fact, CE results confirmed the inductory effect of the sulfated sugars heparin and heparan sulfate on tau hyperphosphorylation, probably because of the exposition of new sites phosphorylatable by GSK3β. This study shows that simple (no-labeling), rapid (less than 30 min per assay), and eco-friendly (no-radioactivity) CE-based kinase assays can give insight into the abnormal phosphorylation of tau. They can be extended to screen different modulators of tau phosphorylation to highlight their function and to develop effective drugs for neurodegenerative disease treatments.

New in-capillary electrophoretic kinase assays to evaluate inhibitors of the PI3k/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway

Human kinases are one of the most promising targets for cancer therapy. Methods able to measure the effects of drugs on these cell agents remain crucial for biologists and medicinal chemists. The current work therefore sought to develop an in-capillary enzymatic assay based on capillary electrophoresis (CE) to evaluate the inhibition of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B (Akt), and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). These kinases belong to the same signaling pathway PI3K/Akt/mTOR. For this proposal, the capillary was used as a nanoreactor in which a few nanoliters of the kinase, its substrate, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and the potent inhibitor were separately injected. A transverse diffusion of laminar flow profiles (TDLFP) approach was employed to mix the reactants. Adenosine diphosphate (ADP ) was detected online at 254 nm. The CE assay was first developed on the α isoform of PI3K. It was compared to five commercial kits frequently used to assess kinase inhibition, based on time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET) and bioluminescence. Each assay was evaluated in terms of sensitivity (S/B), reproducibility (Z'), and variability (r (2)). This CE method was easily extended to assay the inhibition of the β, γ, and δ isoforms of PI3K, and of the other kinases of the pathway, Akt1 and mTOR, since it is based on in-capillary mixing by TDLFP and on ADP quantification by simple UV absorption. This work shows for the first time the evaluation of inhibitors of the kinases of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway using a common in-capillary CE assay. Several inhibitors with a wide range of affinity toward these enzymes were tested.

Human protein kinase inhibitor screening by capillary electrophoresis using transverse diffusion of laminar flow profiles for reactant mixing

A capillary electrophoresis (CE)-based enzyme assay method has been developed to screen protein kinase inhibitors. Four human kinases GSK3β, DYRK1A, CDK5/p25 and CDK1/cyclin B were chosen to test this novel method. These enzymes have been identified as very promising targets to develop treatments against cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. The efficiency of drugs against these relevant biological targets has never been carried out by CE. For this proposal, the capillary was used as a nanoreactor in which four reactants (the enzyme, its two substrates and its potential inhibitor) were successively injected, mixed by using transverse diffusion of laminar flow profiles and incubated. The adenosine 5'-diphosphate (ADP) formed during the enzymatic reaction was detected by UV and quantified. The efficiency of the developed CE method was validated by determining the IC50 values of a wide variety of inhibitors covering a large domain of affinity toward kinases and containing representative and chemically divergent skeletons. Excellent agreement was found between the results obtained by CE and those reported in the literature when using conventional radiometric enzyme assays. Moreover, CE was successfully used to determine the inhibitory effect of several potential inhibitors that was not yet assessed by conventional methods and is crucial for structure activity relation studies. This novel CE method is simple, rapid, very economic (few tens of nanoliters per IC50) and eco-friendly since no radioactivity was required. It could be extended to high-throughput screening of kinase inhibitors, which is of great interest for biomedical and pharmaceutical research fields.

Simplifying the evaluation of graphene modified electrode performance using rotating disk electrode voltammetry

Graphene modified electrodes have been fabricated by electrodeposition from an aqueous graphene oxide solution onto conducting Pt, Au, glassy carbon, and indium tin dioxide substrates. Detailed investigations of the electrochemistry of the [Ru(NH(3))(6)](3+/2+) and [Fe(CN)(6)](3-/4-) and hydroquinone and uric acid oxidation processes have been undertaken at glassy carbon and graphene modified glassy carbon electrodes using transient cyclic voltammetry at a stationary electrode and near steady-state voltammetry at a rotating disk electrode. Comparisons of the data with simulation suggest that the transient voltammetric characteristics at graphene modified electrodes contain a significant contribution from thin layer and surface confined processes. Consequently, interpretations based solely on mass transport by semi-infinite linear diffusion may result in incorrect conclusions on the activity of the graphene modified electrode. In contrast, steady-state voltammetry at a rotating disk electrode affords a much simpler method for the evaluation of the performance of graphene modified electrode since the relative importance of the thin layer and surface confined processes are substantially diminished and mass transport is dominated by convection. Application of the rotated electrode approach with carbon nanotube modified electrodes also should lead to simplification of data analysis in this environment.

Use of kinetic plots for the optimization of the separation time in ultra-high-pressure LC

The kinetic-plot approach, in which experimental t(0) and N-values are extrapolated to the performance at maximum system pressure by increasing the column length, was validated by coupling 250×3 mm columns packed with 3 μm particles. The extra-column volume introduced by coupling columns could be neglected with respect to the peak volumes. Plate numbers of up to 132,000 were experimentally achieved by coupling four columns. The maximum deviation between the experimental and predicted plate numbers was 7% for two coupled columns, and decreasing to 0.1% for four coupled columns. Kinetic plots were used to find the conditions to separate a critical pair, with a preset value for the effective plate number, in the shortest possible time. For high-efficiency separations yielding 100,000 effective plates, the optimum critical-pair retention factor was around 4.5. Kinetic plots are presented to find the optimal column length to obtain the fastest possible 100,000 effective-plate separation, taking into account the effect of mobile-phase viscosity on column pressure, and consequently the optimum column length.

Capillary liquid chromatography at ultrahigh pressures

Ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) is a method of liquid chromatography utilizing sub-2-microm particles packed into capillary columns 25 to 100 cm long. Columns of this length packed with particles this fine require operation with pressures from 1,000 to 7,000 bar (15,000 to 100,000 psi). The advantages of this technique are high separation powers (theoretical plate counts from 100,000 to 300,000) and run times from a few minutes (isocratic) to a few hours (long gradients). This review discusses the background and theoretical basis of UHPLC, practical aspects of UHPLC hardware, examples of separations, future areas for research in UHPLC, and techniques that are both competitive with and complementary to UHPLC.