Electro-Osmotic Flow Through Closed-Open-Closed Microchannels: An Approach to Hyphenation of Capillary Electrophoresis and Maldi

We suggest electro-osmotic driven flow (EOF) through closed-open-closed microchannels as a novel approach for spatial sample separation using capillary electrophoresis (CE) prior to matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectroscopy (MALDI-MS). For this purpose we built a system consisting of the series coupling of a closed fused silica capillary for separation, a microfabricated open microcanal for future MS detection and a second closed fused silica capillary for downstream liquid collection. This work verifies the EOF transport of a peptide sample in such a system with low dispersion.