Desorption/ionization Mass Spectrometry On Porous Silicon And Silica Gel

Desorptionlionization on porous silicon surface (DIOS) is a novel matrix-free method for the analysis of small molecule, which overcomes the limitation of MALDI in low-molecule analysis. With this technique, some amino acids, peptides and drugs were analyzed and the product of derivative reaction of cyclodextrin was examined. The background in DIOS spectrum can be eliminated effectively using porous silicon powder, which may be explained by the fact that the porous silicon powder was suspended and sonicated in solution before use, so that the contaminants on the surface of the porous silicon were completely cleaned off. Porous silica gel and its derivatives have been applied as inorganic matrix for the analysis of the small molecules. In contrast to the conventional MALDI-TOF- MS, the signal interference of low-molecular analytes by the matrix has been eliminated and no fragments of the analytes have been observed. Moreover, we found a new modification method for linking the proteins on the porous silicon, which can keep the biological activity of protein well. The affinity probe not only captures the analytes of interest but also functions as energy absorption device to directly desorptionlionization of the analytes. Thus we can rapidly acquired valuable biological information from small amounts of analyte. Therefore, it provides a new approach to high-throughoutput screening of molecule-molecule interactions, which are essential to proteomics and large-scale screening of drug candidates.