Open AccessDihydrobenzoic acid modified nanoparticle as a MALDI-TOF MS matrix for soft ionization and structure determination of small molecules with diverse structures
Author(s) -
MeiChun Tseng,
Rofeamor P. Obena,
YingWei Lu,
PoChiao Lin,
PingYu Lin,
Yung-Sheng Yen,
Jiann-T’suen Lin,
LiDe Huang,
KuangLieh Lu,
LongLi Lai,
ChunCheng Lin,
YuJu Chen
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of the american society for mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.961
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1879-1123
pISSN - 1044-0305
DOI - 10.1016/j.jasms.2010.08.001
Subject(s) - chemistry , nanoparticle , molecule , ionization , mass spectrometry , dendrimer , protonation , ion , maldi imaging , matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization , fragmentation (computing) , mass spectrum , analyte , analytical chemistry (journal) , chromatography , nanotechnology , desorption , organic chemistry , adsorption , materials science , computer science , operating system
Efficient structural characterization is important for quality control when developing novel materials. In this study, we demonstrated the soft ionization capability of the hybrid of immobilized silica and 2,5-dihydrobenzoic acid (DHB) on iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles in MALDI-TOF MS with a clean background. The ratio between SiO(2) and DHB was examined and was found to affect the surface immobilization of DHB on the nanoparticle, critically controlling the ionization efficiency and interference background. Compared with commercial DHB, the functionalized nanoparticle-assisted MALDI-TOF MS provided superior soft ionization with production of strong molecular ions within 5 ppm mass accuracy on a variety of new types of synthetic materials used for solar cells, light emitting devices, dendrimers, and glycolipids, including analytes with either thermally labile structures or poor protonation tendencies. In addition, the enhancements of the molecular ion signal also provided high-quality product-ion spectra allowing structural characterization and unambiguous small molecule identification. Using this technique, the structural differences among the isomers were distinguished through their characteristic fragment ions and comprehensive fragmentation patterns. With the advantages of long-term stability and simple sample preparation by deposition on a regular sample plate, the use of DHB-functionalized nanoparticles combined with high-resolution MALDI-TOF MS provides a generic platform for rapid and unambiguous structure determination of small molecules.