Laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry of peptides on a hybrid CHCA organic–inorganic matrix

Abstract

We report applications of new hybrid organic–inorganic silica based materials as laser desorption/ionization (LDI)-promoting surfaces for high-throughput identification of peptides. The driving force of our work was to design a new material composed of a conventional MALDI matrix covalently attached to silica with a high organic/inorganic ratio in order to improve the UV absorption by such LDI hybrid matrices. Amorphous CHCA-functionalized silica presenting an organic content up to 1.3 mmol g⁻¹ (around 40% in weight from TGA and elementary analysis measurements) gave very interesting LDI performances in terms of detection sensitivity as well as relative ionization discrepancy (spectral suppression) through the analyses of small synthetic peptide mixtures (550–1300 Da) taking CHCA and amorphous silica as model matrices for control experiments.