Nickel particle/graphene composite as a new matrix-assisted laser de-sorption ionization mass spectrometry matrix and adsorbent for high performance mass spectrometry analysis of biological small molecules

Abstract

using the synthesized nickel particle/graphene (Ni/Gr) composite as a new matrix and adsorbent, a matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) platform was constructed for the efficient analysis of various drugs, amino acids and other small biological molecules. Compared with the traditional matrix of 2, 5-dihydroxyphenyl acid (DHB) and a series of comparison materials (Gr, Ni-1/gr and Ni-5/gr), Ni-2/gr as MALDI matrix has the advantages of low background noise, high ionic strength, high signal-to-noise ratio and wide linear range (0.01 ~ 50 μmol/L, 0.2 ~ 50 μmol/l and 0.05 ~ 60 μmol/l) when analyzing the molecules of resveratrol, 6-gingerol and rutin in the positive ion mode. The detection limits (LODs) of resveratrol, 6-gingerol and rutin were respectively 0.0038, 0.09 and 0.02 μmol/L. Ni-2/gr complex has the characteristics of high specific surface area, rich mesoporous structure, a large number of sp2 structures, strong UV absorption and high saturation magnetization value (MS). It can be used as an adsorbent to magnetically enrich phenylalanine, tryptophan and tyrosine, and can also be used to magnetically enrich low concentration tryptophan in mouse serum samples.