PNNL

Abstract

Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) is the most widely used substrate for microfluidic devices as it enables facile fabrication and has other distinctive properties. However, for applications involving highly sensitive nanoelectrospray ionization mass spectrometry (nanoESI-MS) detection, the use of PDMS microdevices has been hindered by the leaching of uncross-linked oligomers and other contaminants from the substrate that yields a large background of chemical noise in the mass spectra. A more general challenge is that microfluidic devices containing integrated electrospray emitters are frequently unable to operate stably in the nanoflow regime where the best sensitivity is achieved. In this report, we extracted the contaminants from PDMS substrates using a series of solvents, eliminating the background observed when untreated PDMS microchips are used for nanoESI-MS. Optimization of the integrated emitter geometry enabled stable operation at flow rates as low as 10 nL/min. Peptide concentrations of 1 nM were readily detected, representing ~170 zmol of consumed analyte, and an extrapolated detection limit of ~40 zmol; these are the lowest mass and concentration detection limits reported to date for a microchip having an integrated electrospray emitter.