Zastosowanie nanocząstek srebra w laserowej spektrometrii mas oraz w obrazowaniu MS : przegląd

Metallic nanoparticles, especially silver nanoparticles, have attracted much attention due to their unique physical, chemical and opto-electronic properties. Silver nanoparticles have been successfully applied as a matrix replacement for the laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LDI-ToF-MS). Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) can efficiently absorb ultraviolet laser radiation, transfer energy to the analyte and promote analyte desorption, but also constitute a source of silver ions suitable for analyte cationisation. Nanoparticles, producing spectra with highly reduced chemical background in the low m/z region, are perfectly suited for low-molecular weight compound analysis and imaging. AgNPs have been demonstrated to allow efficient capture of different chemical compounds (including amino acids, cholesterol, fatty acids) on their surface, thus efficiently promoting their desorption and gas phase cationisation. The minimum detectable amount for those organic and biological molecules is often in the fmol range [23]. Despite the fact that scientists have developed a variety of methods for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles, there are still problems with obtaining surfaces with nanoparticles of high durability and chemical purity. Recently, a successful application of cationic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which were placed on MALDI targets for highly sensitive detection of d-ribose at attomolar levels as well as analysis of biological samples such as urine and blood serum [51] was shown. The application of new 109AgNPET surface has been presented with examples of analysis of nucleosides and nucleic bases [60]. One of the main directions of development of LDI-MS is the imaging mass spectrometry (MSI), enabling the visualization of surface distribution of biological samples. The critical limitations of the spatial resolution of MALDI-MSI are the size of the organic matrix crystals and the analyte migration during the matrix application process. To overcome these problems, researchers tried to use nanoparticles as substitutes of organic matrices. In 2013 Ruman group presented that direct contact of the analysed object with Ag nanoparticle-covered target permits direct surface transfer of chemical compounds. The active surface becomes then a “chemical photograph” of an object and allows MS analysis and MS imaging [68].