High throughput paper spray mass spectrometry analysis

BackgroundFast analysis of chemicals in samples of complex mixtures is important for many analytical applications including therapeutic drug monitoring and food safety screening.MethodsBased on the paper spray technology developed recently, a high throughput device was developed in this work and used for evaluation of the fast quantitative analysis using paper spray mass spectrometry.ResultsThe performance of the method was characterized with bovine blood samples spiked with sunitinib and nicotine. At optimized condition, relatively fast analysis speed of 7 s/sample was achieved with relatively good LOQs (1 ng/ml) and quantitation.ConclusionIn an application of the method for food screening, LODs better than 1 ng/g were achieved for clenbuterol in beef.

► A high-throughput paper spray device was built for direct fast analysis of raw samples.
► The critical parameters for the fast analysis using paper spray were identified and characterized.
► High throughput quantitation of therapeutic drug and nicotine in whole blood has been demonstrated.