Development of a high‐pressure gradient pumping system for parallel liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry for the analysis of combinatorial libraries

Abstract

Abstract Parallel liquid chromatography/mass spectrometer (LC/MS) systems such as the Micromass MUX™ have been commercially available for several years. Until recently, the LC pumping systems available have been a serious limitation to the more widespread adoption of such systems, particularly in good laboratory practice (GLP) environments. In this work, we compare the performance of the Jasco PAR‐1500 pumping system, which delivers an equal gradient flow to eight individual flow channels, to that of a conventional system, where the flow is split post pump. Both systems were coupled to a Micromass LCT™ liquid chromatography/electrospray ionisation time‐of‐flight (LC/ESI‐TOF) mass spectrometer equipped with a parallel MUX™ inlet system, used for the analysis of combinatorial libraries. In addition to flow stability, the Jasco system has resulted in a dramatic improvement in chromatographic performance. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.