Biomimetic Antireflective Silicon Nanocones Array for Small Molecules Analysis

• Published in: Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 66 - 73
• Main Authors: Wang, Yandong, Zeng, Zhoufang, Li, Jie, Chi, Lifeng, Guo, Xinhua, Lu, Nan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer-Verlag 2013; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analytical Chemistry; Bioinformatics; Biomimetic Materials - chemistry; Biomimetics; Biotechnology; Bradykinin - analysis; Carbohydrates; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Desorption; Energy distribution; Glucose - analysis; Glycosuria - urine; Humans; Ionization; Ions; Lasers; Mass spectrometry; Models, Chemical; Nanostructures - chemistry; Nanostructures - ultrastructure; Organic Chemistry; Polyethylene Glycols - chemistry; Proteomics; Research Article; Signal-To-Noise Ratio; Silicon; Silicon - chemistry; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization - instrumentation; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization - methods; Colloidal lithography; Biomimetics; Photo absorption; Biosensors; SALDI MS
• ISSN: 1044-0305; 1879-1123
• DOI: 10.1007/s13361-012-0498-4

Biomimetic antireflective silicon nanocones array is used for analysis of small molecules by mass spectrometry. The role of the absorbed laser energy and its distribution in the laser desorption/ionization process has been investigated by varying the antireflective features precisely. By optimizing the antireflective silicon array, the absorbed laser energy can be channeled completely into the desorption/ionization of analytes. The optimized silicon array exhibits excellent performance to detect peptide, amino acid, drug molecule, and carbohydrate without any interference in the low-mass region.