Protocol for Etching Bare-Fused Silica Capillaries for Sheathless Capillary Electrophoresis–Mass Spectrometry Coupling

Abstract

Homemade capillaries are a very common practice for the users of capillary electrophoresis (CE), notably in CE-UV. With the advent of the capillary electrophoresis–mass spectrometry coupling since the end of the 1980s, several interfaces have been developed. Among those interfaces, the porous tip sprayer allows great sensitivity at nano flow rates and has been used in numerous applications over the past few years. However, the homemade implementation of a suitable capillary for the porous tip sprayer is more challenging. The porous tip is created by etching the bare-fused silica capillary with hydrofluoric acid. Here we describe the complete process of etching bare-fused silica capillaries, from length cutting to quality control of the newly etched capillary.