Off-line coupling of multidimensional immunoaffinity chromatography and ion mobility spectrometry: A promising partnership

The extreme specificity of immunoaffinity chromatography (IAC) columns coupled to the high sensitivity of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) measurements makes this combination really useful for rapid, selective, and sensitive determination of a high variety of analytes in different samples. The capabilities of the IAC-IMS coupling have been highlighted under three different scenarios: (i) multiclass residue analysis using a single IAC column, (ii) multiclass residue analysis using stacked IAC columns, and (iii) isomer analysis. In the first case, the determination of three strobilurin fungicides - azoxystrobin, picoxystrobin, and pyraclostrobin - in water and strawberry juice was considered, obtaining limits of quantification (LOQs) from 11 to 63 μg L−1. Recoveries from 96 to 106% for water, and from 67 to 104% for strawberry juice were obtained. In the second case, anilinopyrimidine compounds, including two analytes with similar drift time, were selectively retained in different IAC columns and analyzed after independent elution in commercial wine samples by IMS. LOQ values of 16, 14 and 12 μg L−1 were obtained for pyrimethanil, mepanipyrim, and cyprodinil, respectively. The obtained recoveries for wine samples spiked with 25 and 100 μg L−1 were from 82 to 123%. Additionally, the stacked IAC columns concept was applied to the separation of Z and E isomers of azoxystrobin that were selectively retained in specific IAC columns and quantified by IMS. Recoveries between 91 and 94% were obtained for both isomers in water samples.