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Title: Morphology-Driven Control of Metabolite Selectivity Using Nanostructure-Initiator Mass Spectrometry

Journal Article · · Analytical Chemistry
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division and The Molecular Foundry; USDOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Walnut Creek, CA (United States)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division ; USDOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Walnut Creek, CA (United States)
  3. Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS - Center Nanoelectronic Technologies (CNT), Dresden (Germany)
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). The Molecular Foundry
  5. The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA (United States). Scripps Center for Metabolomics & Departments of Chemistry, Molecular and Computational Biology

Nanostructure-initiator mass spectrometry (NIMS) is a laser desorption/ionization analysis technique based on the vaporization of a nanostructure-trapped liquid "initiator" phase. Here in this work, we report an intriguing relationship between NIMS surface morphology and analyte selectivity. Scanning electron microscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry were used to characterize the surface morphologies of a series of NIMS substrates generated by anodic electrochemical etching. Mass spectrometry imaging was applied to compare NIMS sensitivity of these various surfaces toward the analysis of diverse analytes. The porosity of NIMS surfaces was found to increase linearly with etching time where the pore size ranged from 4 to 12 nm with corresponding porosities estimated to be 7-70%. Surface morphology was found to significantly and selectively alter NIMS sensitivity. The small molecule (<2k Da) sensitivity was found to increase with increased porosity, whereas low porosity had the highest sensitivity for the largest molecules examined. Estimation of molecular sizes showed that this transition occurs when the pore size is <3× the maximum of molecular dimensions. While the origins of selectivity are unclear, increased signal from small molecules with increased surface area is consistent with a surface area restructuring-driven desorption/ionization process where signal intensity increases with porosity. In contrast, large molecules show highest signal for the low-porosity and small-pore-size surfaces. We attribute this to strong interactions between the initiator-coated pore structures and large molecules that hinder desorption/ionization by trapping large molecules. Lastly, this finding may enable us to design NIMS surfaces with increased specificity to molecules of interest.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; SC0014079
OSTI ID:
1437961
Journal Information:
Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 89, Issue 12; Related Information: © 2017 American Chemical Society.; ISSN 0003-2700
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 17 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (2)

Silicon‐Based Laser Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry for the Analysis of Biomolecules: A Progress Report journal August 2019
Ecosystem Fabrication (EcoFAB) Protocols for The Construction of Laboratory Ecosystems Designed to Study Plant-microbe Interactions journal January 2018

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