We have Agilent 6300 series Ion trap in our lab. Last week I used TEA to reduce the tailing of the compound and after that a strong peak started to appear at 102 which is of TEA. Can anyone provide me any suggestion regarding this?
Hello, Harshit,
I would decouple my LC system from MS and rinse with water / acetonitrile (95/5) + 1% HCOOH. Amines often like to smear over the column. With formic acid the amine is protonated and thus polar, i.e. it elutes very quickly from the column. For MS I recommend the Agilent Steam-Cleaning-Procedure (see https://www.agilent.com/en/support/mass-spectrometry/kb002010).
Regards
Markus
Hi Markus,
Thank you for the input. I will try this and update you once I am done.
Yes, Markus has pointed you in the correct direction. For an amine, we generally try washing with some acidic solution (fresh acetic acid, 1% is fine to start with). Be sure and remove the column when flushing (isolate each system, the HPLC and the detector, and flush separately so you do not introduce contamination from one to the other).
*You may want to purchase and use a new HPLC column afterwards to avoid re-contaminated the system after cleaning too. Columns are very inexpensive vs the cost of the solvents uses, instrument time and your time.
I think this article will be usefull for you!
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Hello All,
Thank you very much for your suggestions.
I was able to eliminate the TEA contamination and it was mixed approach. I also want to highlight the procedure so in future it will be useful to someone.
TEA peak appears at 102m/z which also appear.
1) First determine that your MS is contaminated with TEA or not. IF it is contaminated that then please follow the steps mentioned in the link mentioned by Markus Christ (First answer in discussion) and if your MS is not contaminated then disconnect it from LC and follow the steps below.
2) The best approach to remove the contamination is to change the column.
3) If you observe the peak even after changing the column, then your solvent filter ,tubing has adsorbed the TEA. In that scenario, first change the solvent filter and wash the tubing with IPA : ACN : Hexane or cyclohexane : Dichloromethane (50:25:15:10). Please remove the column during this procedure. You can keep the flow rate of 200 or 300ul/min, run it overnight and check the contamination next day.
4) If you still observe the peak, then use 10% acetic acid solution for one hour in similar way as mentioned in step 3, followed by flush the tubing with LC/MS grade water for 2-3 hours.
Hope this helps.
Hello Harshit,
thanks for the feedback. Are you satisfied with your system again?
Regards
Markus
The simple answer is don’t use TEA! It is not compatible with an MS system.
anyone using a 6300 ion trap have a copy of chemstation b.01.03 sr1? we are attempting to reinstall chemstation on a computer after a hard drive failed. but are missing B.01.03 SR1. agilent can't find a copy to send. thanks in advance for any help!
Hello Everyone,
I made the mistake of straying 100 mM TEAA in water in orbitrap elite. Now the 102 peak is not going away. The LC system seems clean and TEAA is probably in the ESI source and the mass spec itself. I have cleaned the inside capillary and the cone multiple times including with acetic acid. Backout did not help either. What should I do? Clean the s lense? Do the steam cleaning? please help!
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