Hanfa Zou

Determination of phenolic compounds in river water with on-line coupling bisphenol A imprinted monolithic precolumn with high performance liquid chromatography

The bisphenol A (BPA) imprinted monolithic precolumn has been prepared by in situ polymerization using 4-vinylpyridine (4-VP) and ethylene dimethacrylate (EDMA) as functional monomer and cross-linker, respectively. The column with good flow-through property was obtained by changing the molar ratio of the porogens (toluene and dodecanol). The selectivity and retention properties of the monolith for the BPA and other phenolic compounds were evaluated. The results show that the hydrophobic and hydrogen-bonding interaction plays important roles in the recognition process. The determination of BPA and other phenolic compounds with on-line solid-phase extraction (SPE) by monolithic precolumn coupled with conventional particulates packed and monolithic reversed-phase columns, respectively, was performed. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of phenolic compounds in river water.

Octadecylated Silica Monolith Capillary Column with Integrated Nanoelectrospray Ionization Emitter for Highly Efficient Proteome Analysis

An improved strategy for the preparation of octadecylated silica monolith capillary column with high homogeneity was proposed. Column performance was evaluated by nanoscale HPLC. The design for constructing an integrated nanoelectrospray emitter on the octadecylated silica monolith capillary column was first introduced. In comparison with the separated configuration where the emitter is connected to monolithic capillary column by the aid of a zero dead volume union, the integrated capillary column has the inherent advantage of the minimized extracolumn volume thus providing improved separation quality. The performance of the integrated monolithic capillary column was evaluated by separation of BSA tryptic digest, and peak capacity of 313 with a 30-cm column was obtained. The high separation performance allowed highly confident identification of 662 distinct proteins through assignment of 1933 unique peptides by analysis of tryptic digest of 0.5 μg of Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteins. The higher separation efficiency by a 60-cm monolithic capillary column increased the proteome coverage with identification of 1323 proteins through assignment of 5501 unique peptides over 400-min gradient elution.

Monitoring enzyme reaction and screening enzyme inhibitor based on MALDI-TOF-MS platform with a matrix of oxidized carbon nanotubes

A matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry platform for quantitatively monitoring enzyme activity and screening enzyme inhibitors has been demonstrated. The described method employs a new matrix of oxidized carbon nanotubes. Compared with the traditional fluorescence approach, this label-free method has the advantage of directly identifying the substrates and products in enzymatic reactions. Moreover, the method could be conveniently carried out with any commercial mass spectrometer without modification. We quantitatively monitored the acetylcholinesterase activity and screened acetylcholinesterase inhibitors with a detection rate of about 3.3 s per sample.

Ultrafast enzyme immobilization over large-pore nanoscale mesoporous silica particles

By finely tuning the TEOS/P123 molar ratio of the octane/water/P123/TEOS quadruple emulsion system and by controlling the synthesis conditions, an ultrafine emulsion system was isolated, under the confinement of which, nanoscale silica particles with ordered large mesopores (approximately 13 nm) have been successfully constructed; the obtained mesoporous silica particles have an unusual ultrafast enzyme adsorption speed and the amount of enzyme that can be immobilized is larger than that of conventional mesoporous silica, which has potential applications in the fast separation of biomolecules.

A matrix of 3,4-diaminobenzophenone for the analysis of oligonucleotides by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry

A new matrix of 3,4-diaminobenzophenone (DABP) was demonstrated to be advantageous in the analysis of oligonucleotides by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. With DABP as a matrix, intact oligonucleotide ions can be readily produced with lower laser powers, resulting in better detection limits, less fragmentation and fewer alkali metal ion adducts compared with the results obtained with conventional matrices. Importantly, minimal fragmentation and fewer alkali metal ion adducts were seen even at low concentrations of oligonucleotides. It was also found that samples prepared with DABP are highly homogenous and therefore reducing the need for finding ‘sweet’ spots in MALDI. In addition, excellent shot-to-shot reproducibility, resolution and signal-to-noise ratio were seen with DABP as the matrix.