We describe the preparation and performance of high-efficiency 70 cm × 20
m i.d. silica-based monolithiccapillary LC columns. The monolithic columns at amobile-phase pressure of 5000 psi provide flow rates of~40 nL/min at a linear velocity of ~0.24 cm/s. Thecolumns provide a separation peak capacity of ~420 inconjunction with both on-line coupling with microsolid-phase extraction and nanoelectrospray ionization-massspectrometry. Performance was evaluated using a
Shewanella oneidensis tryptic digest, and ~15-amol detection limits for peptides were obtained using a conventionalion trap and MS/MS for peptide identification. Thesensitivity and separation efficiency enabled the identification of 2367 different peptides covering 855 distinct
S.oneidensis proteins from a 2.5-
g tryptic digest samplein a single 10-h analysis. The number of identifiedpeptides and proteins approximately doubled when theeffective separation time was extended from 200 to 600min. The number of identified peptides increased from32 to 390 as the injection amount was increased from0.5 to 100 ng. Both the run-to-run and column-to-columnreproducibility for proteomic analyses were also evaluated.