Thesis Overview

The performance of a miniaturised field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry device combined with mass spectrometry (FAIMS-MS) has been studied and is reported in this thesis. In the following sections, each chapter is summarised and proposals for future research are discussed.

6.2.1 Summary of Chapter One

Chapter one discussed the principles of differential mobility spectrometry and mass spectrometry along with parameters that are important in determining FAIMS performance. The benefits of the addition of FAIMS to mass spectrometry systems for chemical analysis were reviewed with reference to the relevant literature, demonstrating the potential for the separation of isobaric ions that using FAIMS offers. FAIMS was also shown to offer improvements in detection limits, reduction in chemical noise, faster run times and simplification of complex data.

6.2.2 Summary of Chapter Two

The effect of changing experimental conditions in the ion source and FAIMS-MS interface on the performance of the prototype miniaturised FAIMS device was studied using a test mixture of small molecules and peptides in Chapter two. The CV was found to be stable over the full functioning range of the electrospray source, meaning that optimised FAIMS conditions did not change significantly when optimising source conditions, solvent composition or liquid flow rate (up to 1 ml/min). Transmission of ions with a lower m/z was found to be reduced at higher DFs whereas for ions with a higher m/z where there was little change in transmission with increasing DFs.

An investigation of three different systems including pairs of isobaric, isomeric and near- mass ions showed that miniaturised FAIMS has the ability to distinguish between analytes that are challenging to separate by mass spectrometry. The FAIMS separation of decarboxylated acids using deprotonated ions fragment ions and adducts formed with group I metal ions showed that the choice of ion is important in FAIMS separations, as are the effects of DF and temperature on the FAIMS spectra. The addition of a modifier to the carrier gas was also shown to improve separation, particularly where higher temperatures are required for desolvation. Signal loss of FAIMS-selected analytes is compensated for by reductions in chemical noise and the simplification of complex spectra. Combining FAIMS-selection of

180 analytes in tandem with fragmentation by in-source CID (FISCID-MS) enables the acquisition of FAIMS-selected fragment ions on a single mass analyser, where in-source CID alone produces complex spectra from multiple precursors. The FAIMS-MS analysis of the isomers 2β- and 6β-hydroxytestosterone showed relatively small structural changes may be sufficient to allow FAIMS separation.

The results reported in this chapter provide insight into the capabilities and limitations of miniaturised FAIMS. Further studies using a larger database of analytes, including series of homologous compounds, would be useful for further understanding the capabilities of miniaturised FAIMS combined with mass spectrometry. This study would also need to be expanded to different temperatures and analytes formed as adducts with other metal ions, including metals from different groups and with different charge states.

The separation of the hydroxytestosterone isomers demonstrates proof of principle, where the 6β-hydroxytestosterone was transmitted using FAIMS without significant interference from 2β-hydroxytestosterone. The next step is to combine FAIMS with a rapid method of sample clean up, such as off-line or on-line SPE, for the analysis of mixtures of the isomers spiked into human liver microsomes, in order to evaluate the sensitivity and selectivity of FAIMS- MS when presented with a more challenging sample matrix. Success at this step could be followed by testing real samples used in drug screening assays as an alternative to current LC-MS methods in a high-throughput environment.

6.2.3 Summary of Chapter Three

The effects of adding solvent vapour gas modifiers to the carrier gas of the miniaturised FAIMS were explored in Chapter three. A heated nebuliser-based vapour generator was constructed to introduce solvent vapours into the carrier gas to investigate the effect of alcohol modifiers on the performance of FAIMS-MS using small molecules, peptides and proteins. The results show that for small molecules, large shifts in the CF spectra are observed in the presence of modifiers and that modifier type and concentration combined with DF influences the order of the ions appear in the CF spectrum. In this study, only methanol and 2-butanol were used as modifiers, but the effect of other aliphatic alcohol modifiers (including primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols) should be further investigated along with other solvents with different functionality. The aim of studying other modifiers with other analytes that also vary in functionality would be to better understand analyte and modifier molecule interactions by focussing on physical properties, including functionality,

181 polarity and solubility. A comprehensive study could allow an analyst to predict the most appropriate solvents for a FAIMS-MS analysis.

Peptides exhibited a small shift in CF, but the smaller peak widths observed in the presence of modifiers improved the selectivity between sequence isomers and doubly protonated peptides. Proteins in the presence of modifiers showed a reduction in number of peaks, where multiple peaks are associated with different conformations or solvation states; a CF shift with alcohol modifiers was not observed for proteins. It would be interesting to explore if there is a size trend, where large molecules (like proteins) show little or no change in CF maxima position in the presence of modifiers, but smaller molecules show large CF shifts, and if this trend of size is related to type of modifier. Further investigation into the effect of modifiers on proteins is also important to better understand the selective reduction of other protein peaks while others remain.

There may be potential to explore the kinetics of clustering and declustering of solvent molecules to analytes using FAIMS, where temperature and modifier concentration may give insight to the interaction of each solvent molecule with analyte ion. This may also help explain the phenomenon observed with peptides and proteins in the presence of modifiers.

6.2.4 Summary of Chapter Four

Chapter four reported an investigation of the advantages of combining a fast FAIMS separation with TOF MS to analyse two systems of nitrogen-containing pharmaceutical impurities. The direct FAIMS-MS analysis of a degradation product of an antibiotic drug and of potentially genotoxic impurities in a surrogate active pharmaceutical excipient were investigated. The former system presents an analytical challenge due to the antibiotic drug fragmenting readily by in-source CID to form the same ion as the degradation product. The unique positioning of the FAIMS device at the inlet of the mass spectrometer enabled FAIMS-selection of the in-source generated degradation product, preventing interference from in-source CID of the antibiotic drug. Further experiments should include full validation of the quantitative FAIMS-MS analysis of the degradation product. It would also be beneficial to automate the sample preparation to shorten the run time and reduce solution degradation.

Thermal desorption was used to evaporate potentially genotoxic impurities from a surrogate active pharmaceutical ingredient into the electrospray source of the FAIMS-MS spectrometer

182 to allow the PGIs to be ionized by extractive electrospray (EESI). Sufficient selectivity and precision was observed for the direct analysis of the PGIs at the threshold of toxicological concern by TD-FAIMS-EESI-MS. At present, the method requires manual loading of samples to the thermal desorber and automation could significantly improve run time. There are commercially available thermal desorbers with integrated autosamplers, and it would be interesting to combine these techniques with FAIMS-MS to increase the sample throughput.

6.2.5 Summary of Chapter Five

Chapter five reports the development of a UHPLC-FAIMS-MS method for the quantitative determination of a drug metabolite in urine. Initially, infusion studies of the drug ibuprofen and its glucuronide metabolite explored DF and chip trench lengths for optimum selectivity and sensitivity. The UHPLC-FAIMS-MS analysis was carried out without sample clean-up and used a shorter chromatographic run time for rapid elution of the metabolite which without FAIMS co-eluted with chemical/matrix interference. The FAIMS conditions were transferred to the UHPLC-MS method and found to offer significant reduction in co-eluting chemical noise, whereas narrowing the mass windows without FAIMS offered no improvement in signal-to-noise. FAIMS pre-selection of the metabolite simplified the mass spectra and improved signal-to-noise by 2-fold. The improvement in signal-to-noise gives lower limits of quantitation, which combined with no loss in linearity at the top end resulted in an improvement in the linear dynamic range. UHPLC-FISCID-MS also showed an increase in signal-to-noise for fragments of the FAIMS-selected metabolite.

The data in this chapter demonstrate that the quantitative and qualitative performance for determination of the drug metabolite in urine is enhanced by the addition of a FAIMS separation. The orthogonality of the FAIMS and MS separations provide reductions in chemical noise that cannot be achieved by increased mass resolution, this suggests that low resolution LC-MS analysers would also benefit from the addition of a FAIMS device. It would be interesting to transfer the FAIMS method to a lower resolution LC-MS and assess the improvement in both qualitative and quantitative aspects for determination of urinary drug metabolites. Future work should also include an evaluation of lifetime of the FAIMS chip when subjected to routine analysis of urine samples without sample clean up to determine how robust the FAIMS device is with challenging sample matrices.

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