AVS 61st International Symposium & Exhibition
    Applied Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session AS+BI+VT-TuM

Invited Paper AS+BI+VT-TuM10
Mass spectrometry surface analysis outside the vacuum

Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 11:00 am, Room 316

Session: Ambient Ionization Mass Spectrometry
Presenter: Justin Wiseman, Prosolia Inc.
Authors: J.W. Wiseman, Prosolia Inc.
M.E. ElNaggar, Prosolia Inc.
J.K. Kennedy, Prosolia Inc.
B.L. Laughlin, Prosolia Inc.
Correspondent: Click to Email
Advances in mass spectrometry in the last 20 years has produced instruments with higher resolving power, smaller footprints, even portable, and the capability of measuring surfaces for molecules in the ambient air; the former truly enabling the latter. Ambient mass spectrometry involves the characterization of samples in their native state in the open air and is exemplified by the development of Desorption Electrospray Ionization (DESI) and Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART). DESI uses high velocity charged droplets produced by a pneumatically-assisted electrospray to effect desorption and ionization of surface-bearing analytes. The applications of the technique are broad and span from the detection of leachables to thin-layer chromatography to imaging of drugs, metabolites and lipids in histological tissue sections, where the lateral spatial resolution has been reported to be as high as 50μm. The flowprobe, also an ambient technique, uses a liquid-microjunction formed at the surface to extract and deliver analytes to the mass spectrometer via an electrospray source. The applications of the flowprobe are also broad and have included microarray sampling, thin-layer chromatography plate analysis, and biological tissue analysis. This presentation will discuss the merits and applications of each of the DESI and flowprobe devices, with emphasis on their application to imaging biological tissue.