title: LDI-MS assisted by chemical-free gold nanoparticles: enhanced sensitivity and reduced background in the low-mass region.
abstract: Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) emerged as an effective technique for the detection of analytes with high sensitivity. The surface chemistry and the size of AuNPs are the crucial parameters for lowering the detection limits and increasing the selectivity of LDI-MS. Here we show that chemical-free size selected AuNPs, obtained by laser ablation synthesis in solution (LASiS), have very low background in the low mass region (<500 Da), contrary to citrate stabilized AuNPs (citrate-AuNPs) and dihydroxyacetophenone (DHAP). This allowed better performances for the picomole detection of low mass analytes like arginine, fructose, atrazine, anthracene and paclitaxel. The results suggest that chemical-free LASiS-AuNPs can be an excellent matrix for nanoparticle-assisted LDI-MS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova , Via Marzolo 1, I-35131 Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Amendola
authors.forename: Lucio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Litti
authors.forename: Moreno
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meneghetti
mesh_terms: D019343:Citric Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D007834:Lasers; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D019343:Citric Acid; D006046:Gold