Emerging flow injection mass spectrometry methods for high-throughput quantitative analysis

Abstract

Where does flow injection analysis mass spectrometry (FIA-MS) stand relative to ambient mass spectrometry (MS) and chromatography-MS? Improvements in FIA-MS methods have resulted in fast-expanding uses of this technique. Key advantages of FIA-MS over chromatography-MS are fast analysis (typical run time <60 s) and method simplicity, and FIA-MS offers high-throughput without compromising sensitivity, precision and accuracy as much as ambient MS techniques. Consequently, FIA-MS is increasingly becoming recognized as a suitable technique for applications where quantitative screening of chemicals needs to be performed rapidly and reliably. The FIA-MS methods discussed herein have demonstrated quantitation of diverse analytes, including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, environmental contaminants, and endogenous compounds, at levels ranging from parts-per-billion (ppb) to parts-per-million (ppm) in very complex matrices (such as blood, urine, and a variety of foods of plant and animal origin), allowing successful applications of the technique in clinical diagnostics, metabolomics, environmental sciences, toxicology, and detection of adulterated/counterfeited goods. The recent boom in applications of FIA-MS for high-throughput quantitative analysis has been driven in part by (1) the continuous improvements in sensitivity and selectivity of MS instrumentation, (2) the introduction of novel sample preparation procedures compatible with standalone mass spectrometric analysis such as salting out assisted liquid-liquid extraction (SALLE) with volatile solutes and NH4(+) QuEChERS, and (3) the need to improve efficiency of laboratories to satisfy increasing analytical demand while lowering operational cost. The advantages and drawbacks of quantitative analysis by FIA-MS are discussed in comparison to chromatography-MS and ambient MS (e.g., DESI, LAESI, DART). Generally, FIA-MS sits 'in the middle' between ambient MS and chromatography-MS, offering a balance between analytical capability and sample analysis throughput suitable for broad applications in life sciences, agricultural chemistry, consumer safety, and beyond.

Two Years Monitoring of Ethyl Carbamate in Sugar Cane Spirit from Brazilian Distilleries

“…ESI suffers from matrix effect, especially when the analyses are performed without liquid chromatography. 19 The matrix effect usually reduces the ionization, making the signal non-constant; optimization and additive addition are typically used to mitigate these issues. To avoid the sensitivity differences of ethyl carbamate in a synthetic mixture of ethanol:water and real samples of sugar cane spirits, it was decided to use real samples as matrices, but they always included endogenous ethyl carbamate.…”

High Throughput Mass Spectrometry Platform for Prospecting High Value Chemicals from Bioconversion of Glycerin

“…Automated DIMS has become very useful as a high-throughput metabolite fingerprinting or compound screening tool. However, some drawbacks of DIMS are the ion suppression effect and no discrimination of isobaric or isomer compounds, 24 because to increase speed of analysis and simplify the acquisition of data, the removal of the analytical column is the main strategy in DIMS. 25 But DIMS has important advantages, in other words, it requires minimum sample pre-treatments, no chromatographic separation and its instrument cycle is around 5 min, which enables the analysis of more than 1,000 samples per week without significant problems in data quality.…”

Determination of fatty acid methyl esters in cosmetic castor oils by flow injection–electrospray ionization–high‐resolution mass spectrometry

“…On the other hand, DI presents several drawbacks such as memory effects and low sampling frequency. To counterbalance these limitations, the principle of flow injection analysis (FIA) has been introduced to mass spectrometry . With regard to fatty acid analysis, Munoz et al .…”

“…On the other hand, DI presents several drawbacks such as memory effects and low sampling frequency. To counterbalance these limitations, the principle of flow injection analysis (FIA) has been introduced to mass spectrometry [18,19]. With regard to fatty acid analysis, Munoz et al [16] applied liquid chromatography pump for sample introduction to ESI source operated in negative mode; pork meat hydrolysates were analysed by a single quadrupole mass spectrometer achieving reliable quantification of total oleic acid.…”