[TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITY 2007-062]

MCN Emitter ™ - "Plug, Play and Walk Away"

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Description:
Electrospray ionization (ESI) has become the preferred method of coupling liquid separation
techniques to a mass spectrometer (MS). Currently, pulled-glass capillaries are widely employed
to improve electrospray performance at nL/min flow rates. Essential to the performance of
nano-ESI is a small emitter orifice through which the fluidic sample is electrosprayed into the
MS. While effective for stabilizing low flow rates, pulled-tip emitters possesses several technical
limitations which include susceptibility to clogging, limited range of possible flow rates and poor
tip to tip reproducibility.

Figure 1: Queen's University MCN Emitter™

Background:

Researcher’s at Queen’s University have developed a novel multi-channel nanoelectrospray
(MCN Emitter™) emitter which uses a micro structured silica fibre as a “shower head” to split the fluidic
flow. This new class of MCN Emitter™offers end-users the same signal sensitivities at 1000-
300nL/minute flow rates they have come expect from currently available high performance
emitters, but with significant and unprecedented improvements in tip robustness. By virtue of
its multi-channel construction, the MCN Emitter™ lasts longer and produces almost no fluidic
backpressure. Extremely resistant to clogging, the MCN Emitter™ allows the user to plug in the
emitter, begin the measurement and walk away.

Figure 2. Effects of exposing the MCN Emitter™ and commercial tapered emitters to Hanks solution (a highly concentrated nutritive solution for culturing animal cells). The MCN Emitter™ resisted complete clogging even following the infusion of Hanks solution for 25 minutes and were able to fully recover and resume normal operation once infusion of Hanks solution was stopped.

PARTEQ Innovations is excited to be the first to offer the ESI-MS community the revolutionary
MCN Emitter™ at academic research and industrial prices. Fabricated to exacting standards at
Queen’s University, the MCN Emitter™ can be purchased in packages of five or twenty. For
ordering information and additional technical notes, please refer to our Flintbox portal at:
http://parteq.flintbox.com/technology.asp?Page=3814.

Custom-length emitters are also available. An additional charge will be applied to each additional cm in order to cover the cost of materials.

Sales inquiries:

Hassan Jaferi

hjaferi@parteqinnovations.com

P: +1. 613. 533. 6000 x79277

Technical inquiries:

Dr. Richard Oleschuk

oleschuk@chem.queensu.ca

P: +1. 613. 533. 6000 x79175