Nanostructured weathering steel for matrix-free laser desorption ionisation mass spectrometry and imaging of metabolites, drugs and complex glycans

Abstract

Weathering steel has been employed for the first time to prepare sample plates for matrix-free laser desorption ionisation mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) of small molecules up to a mass range of around 1500 Da. The effective UV absorption, heat conductivity and porosity of the nanostructured inner rust layer formed during passivation determine the excellent performance in LDI-MS for a broad range of different analyte classes. The inexpensive material was evaluated in a series of relevant analytical applications ranging from the matrix-free detection of serum metabolites, lactose quantification, lipid analysis in milk to the glycoprofiling of antibodies and imaging mass spectrometry of brain tissue samples.