Mass spectrometry contamination from Tinuvin 770, a common additive in laboratory plastics.
The superior sensitivity of current mass spectrometers makes them prone to contamination issues, which can have deleterious effects on sample analysis. Here, bis(2,2,6,6 tetramethyl 4 piperidyl) sebacate (marketed under the name Tinuvin 770) is identified as a major contaminant in applications using liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC MS) Tinuvin 770 is often added to laboratory and medical plastics as a UV stabilizer. One particular lot of microcentrifuge tubes was found to have an excess of this compound that would leach into samples and drastically interfere with LC MS data acquisition. Further analysis found that Tinuvin 770 readily leached into polar and nonpolar solvents from the contaminated tube lot. Efforts to remove Tinuvin 770 from contaminated samples were unsuccessful. A prescreening method using MALDI TOF MS is presented to prevent system contamination and sample loss.
Journal of biomolecular techniques JBT