GC-, LC-, and TLC-MS for the analysis of (bio)organic samples and the in-situ characterization of functional thin films

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The research team in the Departments of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at the University Windsor includes synthetic chemists, materials scientists, cancer researchers, and structural biologists. This highly interdisciplinary team carries out research in wide variety of disciplines from studying how protein-function is regulated; making next-generation self-healing electronics; generating new liquid crystals; designing and synthesizing new anti-cancer, anti-microbial, and anti-autoimmune drugs; innovating new catalysts to turn greenhouse gases into useful chemicals; developing new ways to make chemical bonds; determining the metabolic fate of new drugs; and designing new biomedical probes to study biological processes. What these applications have in common is the need to identify specific chemicals present in complex samples. The best current way to do this involves a combination of chromatography (separating molecules based on physical properties) and mass spectrometry (identifying what molecules are present in each separated fraction). The team at the University of Windsor recently decommissioned our older gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) and without it, our innovative research suffers, and our students do not receive the most modern training to prepare them for employment post-graduation. This grant requests a new GC-MS with added features like a headspace-sampler that allows us to identify and quantify the gases above a sample, or to measure gases directly. This is very useful for working with our greenhouse partners who want to better understand the chemical signals that plants send to each other. We are also requesting a new MS to be attached to a liquid chromatography instrument already in place (LC-MS). Many of the molecules made by the team have too high a boiling point to be analyzed by gas chromatography, and the LC-MS will let us study them efficiently. We are also requesting a state-of-the-art attachment that will allow us to sample compounds directly from a solid surface. This device was designed so that thin layer chromatography plates (TLC) could be sampled directly into a mass spectrometer (TLC-MS). TLC is the standard way that chemists monitor reactions as different compounds move across the plate at different rates. However, without laborious further analysis one cannot determine which spot on the TLC plate corresponds to which compound. TLC-MS allows us to determine which compound corresponds to which spot directly without requiring costly scale-up and purification of each material. The team will use this to sample other solid samples like cell cultures, tissue samples, thin films of antibacterial material, and organic semiconductors to ensure that processing did not change the chemistry. Students using this instrument suite will be trained in the latest in analytical technology preparing them for their careers while also advancing innovative research and facilitating the goals of local industry.