Analysis of fullerene clusters using asymmetrical flow FFF (AF4) hyphenated with an Orbitrap high resolution with an APPI mass spectrometer

This note shows that it is possible to couple flow FFF online to an Orbitrap HRMS with an APPI chamber. This setup facilitates the identification of fullerene clusters in aqueous matrices directly after separation of the particles with asymmetrical flow FFF. This enables both characterizing those clusters with non-destructive analytical techniques such as UV-Vis or MALS in the first place and subsequently identifying the mass of the compounds present in the clusters. So far, this had to be done by collecting separate fractions.