A novel and original application of salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction is presented. This technique was used to purify the final reaction products (quaternary ammonium salts) from unreacted components and by-products present in multiple excesses. The partition of two structurally related compounds as (2-aminoethyl)trimethylammonium salt (a labeling reagent) and a derivative of [2-(imidazoline-1-yl)ethyl]trimethylammonium salt (a final reaction product of N-acetylglucosamine labeling by (2-aminoethyl)trimethylammonium salt) between acetonitrile-rich and water-rich layers was monitored by hydrophilic interaction chromatography with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Despite the poor solubility of both highly polar substances in solutions containing a high concentration of acetonitrile, the main portion of the labeling reagent (72%) can be removed from the crude reaction mixture in the first extraction step using 95% acetonitrile/5% water as an extraction solvent. The purified final reaction product contained only 2% of the labeling reagent, and it was suitable for analysis by direct infusion mass spectrometry to confirm its identity. The capability of the suggested purification protocol to process small-volume highly salted reaction mixtures was also proven by analysis of saccharide mixture containing glucose, maltose, and maltotriose labeled by the positively charged tag.

Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Analytical Chemistry Brno Czech Republic

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