Laser spray

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Laser spray is a new liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry interface. Explosive vaporization and mist formation occur when an aqueous solution effusing out from the tip of the stainless steel capillary is irradiated from the opposite side of the capillary by a 10.6 μm infrared laser. Weak ion signals could be detected when the plume was sampled through the ion sampling orifice. When a high voltage (3–4 kV) was applied to the stainless-steel capillary, strong ion signals appeared. The ion abundances were found to be orders of magnitude greater than those obtained by conventional electrospray ionization in the case of aqueous solutions.

Laser spray is a hybrid of three basic techniques for the generation of gaseous ions from the condensed phase, i.e., energy-sudden activation, nebulization and the action of an electric field.^[1]

[edit] Biological application

Laser spray mass spectrometry can faithfully reflect the solution-phase characteristics of biomolecules. It has been successfully applied to evaluate the binding affinities of protein-DNA [2] and drug-DNA complexes [3].

[edit] Advantage

Laser spray has better ionization efficiency than conventional ESI [1]. In particular, the sensitivity became more than one order of magnitude higher in negative ion modes. It was also found that this technique has a potential benefit for the low concentration samples due to condensation effect of the formed droplet by the irradiation of laser.

[edit] References

1. ^ Laser spray: electric field-assisted matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization Hiraoka, K. J. Mass Spectrom. 2004; 39: 341.

1. Laser spray: electric field-assisted matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization. Hiraoka, K. J. Mass Spectrom. 2004; 39: 341. 2. Quantitative evaluation of protein-DNA binding affinity by laser spray ionization mass spectrometry. Xiangguo Shi, Yoshifumi Nishimura, Satoko Akashi, Atsushi Takamizawa, Kenzo Hiraoka,. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. 2006, 17; 611-620. 3. Analysis of drug-DNA complexes by laser spray mass spectrometry. Xiangguo Shi, Atsushi Takamizawa, Yoshifumi Nishimura, Kenzo Hiraoka, Satoko Akashi. Journal of Mass Spectrometry. 2006, 41; 1086-1095.