RESUMO
Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) with ambient sampling and ionization can rapidly and easily capture the distribution of chemical components in a solid sample. Because the spatial resolution of MSI is limited by the size of the sampling area, reducing sampling size is an important goal for high resolution MSI. Here, we report the first use of a nanopipette for sampling and ionization by tapping-mode scanning probe electrospray ionization (t-SPESI). The spot size of the sampling area of a dye molecular film on a glass substrate was decreased to 6 µm on average by using a nanopipette. On the other hand, ionization efficiency increased with decreasing solvent flow rate. Our results indicate the compatibility between a reduced sampling area and the ionization efficiency using a nanopipette. MSI of micropatterns of ink on a glass and a polymer substrate were also demonstrated.
RESUMO
We report the application of tapping-mode scanning probe electrospray ionization (t-SPESI) to mass spectrometry imaging of industrial materials. The t-SPESI parameters including tapping solvent composition, solvent flow rate, number of tapping at each spot, and step-size were optimized using a quadrupole mass spectrometer to improve mass spectrometry (MS) imaging of thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and additives in polymer films. Spatial resolution of approximately 100 µm was achieved by t-SPESI imaging mass spectrometry using a fused-silica capillary (50 µm i.d., 150 µm o.d.) with the flow rate set at 0.2 µL/min. This allowed us to obtain discriminable MS imaging profiles of three dyes separated by TLC and the additive stripe pattern of a PMMA model film depleted by UV irradiation.
