European Journal of Mass Spectrometry - Abstract of Application of silicon nanowires and indium tin oxide surfaces in desorption electrospray ionization

Jaroslav Pól,^a,b,* Petr Novák,^a Michael Volný,^a Gary H. Kruppa,^c Risto Kostiainen,^b Karel Lemr^a,d and Vladimír Havlíček^a,d
^aLaboratory of Molecular Structure Characterization, Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Vídeňská 1083, CZ-142 20 Prague, Czech Republic
^bDivision of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, PO Box 56, FI-00014, Finland. E-mail: jaroslav.pol@helsinki.fi
^cBruker Daltonics, 40 Manning Road, Billerica, MA 01821, USA
^dDepartment of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, Tř. Svobody 8, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic

Two nanostructured surfaces are introduced as advantageous substrates for desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS). Nano-assisted laser desorption/ionization (NALDI) plates coated with silicon nanowires (SiNWs) and indium tin oxide (ITO) layers on glass are both conductive non-polar surfaces that were originally designed as superior substrates for matrix-free laser desorption/ionization. In this study, NALDI/SiNWs and ITO were tested as potentially useful DESI substrates for selected model analytes (cyclosporine, beauverolide, surfactin and nystatin). Both nanostructured surfaces produced more intense and longer-lasting signals than other tested surfaces (polytetrafluoroethylene, glass, polymethylmethacrylate and chromatography paper).

Keywords: mass spectrometry, desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), ambient ionization, nanowires, indium tin oxide, nanostrctured surfaces, surface analysis