Observing Proton Transfer Reactions Inside the MALDI Plume: Experimental and Theoretical Insight into MALDI Gas-Phase Reactions

We evaluated the contribution of gas-phase in-plume proton transfer reactions to the formation of protonated and deprotonated molecules in the MALDI process. A split sample holder was used to separately deposit two different samples, which avoids any mixing during sample preparation. The two samples were brought very close to each other and desorbed/ionized by the same laser pulse. By using a combination of deuterated and non-deuterated matrices, it was possible to observe exclusively in-plume proton transfer processes. The hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) kinetics were evaluated by varying the delayed extraction (DE) time, allowing the desorbed ions and neutrals to interact inside the plume for a variable period of time before being extracted and detected. Quantum mechanical calculations showed that the HDX energy barriers are relatively low for such reactions, corroborating the importance of gas-phase proton transfer in the MALDI plume. The experimental results, supported by theoretical simulations, confirm that the plume is a very reactive environment, where HDX reactions could be observed from 0 ns up to 400 ns after the laser pulse. These results could be used to evaluate the relevance of previously proposed (and partially conflicting) ionization models for MALDI.