Microstructured tungsten oxide: A generic desorption/ionization substrate for mass spectrometry

Abstract

Microstructured tungsten oxide (WO3) fabricated by laser-irradiating tungsten foil in methanol has been developed as a substrate to soft-ionize small-molecular-weight compounds by surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry. The material can be used to detect a wide variety of low molecular weight polar analytes in their protonated and deprotonated forms and non-polar species as radical cations. © 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.