Application of cycloolefin polymer chip directly integrated with an electronanospray tip to electrophoretic separation and mass spectrometric detection

This paper reports a fabrication of cycloolefin polymer (COP) chip directly integrated with an electrospray ionization (ESI) emitter tip for a microchip electrophoretic (MCE) separation and mass spectrometric (MS) detection on the basis of the hot embossing, low temperature direct bonding, micromachining techniques and direct metallization onto the COP surface. By applying the fabricated COP chip to the MCE-ESI-MS analysis, a successful separation and detection of caffeine and amino acids was attained without any mechanical pump, nebulizing gas and sheath liquid.