Abstract
Suppression of ion intensity in the presence of high salt matrices is common in
most mass spectrometry ionization techniques. Desorption electrospray ionization
(DESI) is an ionization method that exhibits salt tolerance, and this is investigated. DESI analysis was performed on three different drug mixtures in the presence of 0, 0.2, 2, 5, 10, and 20% NaCl:KCl weight by volume from seven different surfaces. At physiological concentrations individual drugs in each mixture were observed with each surface. Collision-induced dissociation (CID) was used to provide additional confirmation for select compounds. Multiple stage experiments, to MS5, were performed for select compounds. Even in the absence of added salt, the benzodiazepine containing mixture yielded sodium and potassium adducts of carbamazepine which masked the ions of interest. These adducts were eliminated by adding 0.1% 7M ammonium acetate to the standard methanol:water (1:1) spray solvent. Comparison of the salt tolerance of DESI with that of electrospray ionization (ESI) demonstrated much better signal/noise characteristics for DESI in this study. The salt tolerance of DESI was also studied by performing limit of detection and dynamic range experiments. Even at a salt concentration significantly above physiological concentrations, select surfaces were effective in providing spectra that allowed the ready identification of the compounds of interest. The already high salt tolerance of DESI can be optimized further by appropriate choices of surface and spray solution.