Quantitative analysis with desorption/ionization on silicon mass spectrometry using electrospray deposition

Desorption/ionization on silicon mass spectrometry (DIOS-MS) is demonstrated as a quantitative analytical tool when coupled to electrospray deposition (ESD). In this study, we illustrate the utility of DIOS-MS in the quantitative analysis of a peptide and two amino acids with deuterated and structural analogues used as internal standards. An important feature of this approach is the incorporation of ESD to improve sample homogeneity across the porous silicon surface. ESD allowed for a marked improvement in quantitative analysis due to its applicability to LC-DIOS, and because of the absence of matrix, sample can be deposited at very low flow rates (150 nL/min). Experiments comparing the traditional dried droplet and ESD methods show that ESD samples exhibit significantly improved quantitation and much higher sample-to-sample reproducibility.