title: Laser-induced acoustic desorption of natural and functionalized biochromophores.
abstract: Laser-induced acoustic desorption (LIAD) has recently been established as a tool for analytical chemistry. It is capable of launching intact, neutral, or low charged molecules into a high vacuum environment. This makes it ideally suited to mass spectrometry. LIAD can be used with fragile biomolecules and very massive compounds alike. Here, we apply LIAD time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) to the natural biochromophores chlorophyll, hemin, bilirubin, and biliverdin and to high mass fluoroalkyl-functionalized porphyrins. We characterize the variation in the molecular fragmentation patterns as a function of the desorption and the VUV postionization laser intensity. We find that LIAD can produce molecular beams an order of magnitude slower than matrix-assisted laser desorption (MALD), although this depends on the substrate material. Using titanium foils we observe a most probable velocity of 20 m/s for functionalized molecules with a mass m = 10,000 Da.
authors.affiliation: †University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, VCQ and QuNaBioS, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Uğur
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Sezer
authors.affiliation: †University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, VCQ and QuNaBioS, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wörner
authors.affiliation: †University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, VCQ and QuNaBioS, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Horak
authors.affiliation: ‡University of Basel, Department of Chemistry, St. Johannsring 19, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Felix
authors.affiliation: ‡University of Basel, Department of Chemistry, St. Johannsring 19, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tüxen
authors.affiliation: §University of Vienna, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, QuNaBioS, Doktor-Bohr-Gasse 7, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Götz
authors.affiliation: §University of Vienna, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, QuNaBioS, Doktor-Bohr-Gasse 7, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Alipasha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vaziri
authors.affiliation: ‡University of Basel, Department of Chemistry, St. Johannsring 19, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.|∥Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Nanotechnology, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mayor
authors.affiliation: †University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, VCQ and QuNaBioS, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arndt
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D001663:Bilirubin / Q000737:chemistry; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000737:chemistry; D006427:Hemin / Q000737:chemistry; D007834:Lasers; D015394:Molecular Structure; D011166:Porphyrins / Q000737:chemistry*; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
chemical_list: D011166:Porphyrins; D002734:Chlorophyll; D006427:Hemin; D001663:Bilirubin