Visible surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry of small macromolecules deposited on the graphite plate

Abstract

Visible surface-assisted desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (SALDI-MS) has been investigated for several small macromolecules deposited on the graphite plate using laser radiation at 532 nm where most of the macromolecules are transparent. The graphite surface functioned well as a photon absorbing material and an energy transfer mediator for visible light. The results show that visible SALDI is a much softer ionization technique than UV-MALDI and FAB-MS in our results with synthetic macromolecules, PPG, PPGMBE and cavitand molecules. For the SALDI of biomolecules, glycerol as a proton source was essential with the graphite plate. As in visible SALDI, the role division of the photon absorbing material and the cationization agent can provide a generality in mass spectrometric analysis of macromolecules compared with MALDI using the dual functional matrix.