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This review discusses different liquid chromatographic and capillary electrochromatographic approaches to the separation and quantitation of peptides using silica-based and polymeric-based columns with emphasis on liquid chromatography. Mass spectrometry detection and quantitation of peptides using labeled and label-free procedures, will also be discussed, as well as the effect of amino acids' properties on the solubility of peptides, an important parameter that influences the selection of the mobile phase. A discussion of different column packing materials, reversed-phase, cyclodextrins, macrocyclic antibiotics, porous graphitic carbon, mixed-phases, and normal-phase will be included, as well as a short discussion of multi-dimensional approaches for the separation of complex peptide mixtures.

A review of sheathless interfaces for capillary electrophoresis (CE)-mass spectrometry (MS) is presented. The review discusses the on-line CE-MS system requirements, advantages and weaknesses of current sheathless interface designs for CE-electrospray ionization MS, and comparison between sheath flow and sheathless interfaces. The advantages and limitations of three sheathless designs are discussed and commented upon, these include single-capillary, two-capillary and three-piece designs.

Micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) was applied for the separation of tryptophan and related indoles. Using a 5 mM sodium borate buffer (pH 9.2) containing 50 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate and 5% acetonitrile, eleven indoles were baseline separated in under 17 min. Most of the indoles were detected at the nM level by native fluorescence using KrF laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), which was approximately 100 times more sensitive than UV absorption detection at 200 nm. Preliminary results show that the MEKC-LIF with direct sample injection is a feasible method for assessing indole profiles in diluted urine and serum.

Capillary electrophoresis of the sex hormone estrogens using different buffer components was investigated. Free zone electrophoresis with 10 mM phosphate buffer (pH 11.5) or 10 mM phosphate buffer with 10-20% methanol was not effective in separating the ten estrogens used in this study. However, nine estrogens were resolved by micellar electrokinetic chromatography using a 10 mM borate buffer (pH 9.2) containing 100 mM sodium cholate. In addition, some estrogens were partially separated using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micellar buffers; however, the addition of modifiers such as organic solvents or cyclodextrins improved resolutions significantly. Using a 10 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) containing 50 mM SDS and 20% methanol, or a 10 mM borate buffer (pH 9.2) containing 50 mM SDS and 20 mM gamma-cyclodextrin, all ten of the tested estrogens were separated. However, the cyclodextrin-modified buffer allowed faster separation.

The effect of the addition of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) to the buffer system in capillary electrophoresis on electroosmotic flow (EOF) is examined. At a CTAB concentration of 2.5·10−4 M, EOF is anodal (flow towards the positive detector column end). With bare silica columns, anodal EOF first increases with increasing pH, up to a maximum in the pH range 4–6 depending on CTAB concentration, then decreases as pH is further increased. Optimum resolution of pyridinecarboxylic acid isomers is obtained at pH 2.7 with a 10 mM phosphate buffer and 30 mM CTAB. Using the same buffer system, optimum resolution for hydroxy-substituted pyridinecarboxylic acid isomers is obtained at pH 7.5. The use of CTAB results in a dramatic improvement in peak shape. Preliminary results, using an excimer laser operated at 248 nm, show that the fluorescence intensity of isonicotinic acid is substantially enhanced with the addition of 0.3% hydrogen peroxide to the phosphate buffer system.

The activation of diol-bonded silica with 1,1′-carbonyldiimidazole and the coupling of protein ligands was examined as a function of activation conditions, coupling time, buffer, and pH. It was found that extensive sonication and vacuum-degassing during the activation step significantly increased the amount of ligand coupled. In the coupling step, it was found that a subpopulation of active groups was resistant to hydrolysis and resulted in increased coupling yields of ligand over a six-day reaction time. The coupling and hydrolysis reactions were faster in carbonate buffer than in phosphate buffer, but the overall yields were the same. Coupling yields of several proteins were found to be relatively insensitive to pH over the range 4–8.