Experimental investigations of the internal energy of molecules evaporated via laser-induced acoustic desorption into a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer

The internal energy of neutral gas-phase organic and biomolecules, evaporated by means of laser-induced acoustic desorption (LIAD) into a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer, was investigated through several experimental approaches. The desorbed molecules were demonstrated not to undergo degradation during the desorption process by collecting LIAD-evaporated molecules and subjecting them to analysis by electrospray ionization/quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometry. Previously established gas-phase basicity values were remeasured for LIAD-evaporated organic molecules and biomolecules with the use of the bracketing method. No endothermic reactions were observed. The remeasured basicity values are in close agreement with the values reported in the literature. The amount of internal energy deposited during LIAD is concluded to be less than a few kilocalories per mole. Chemical ionization with a series of proton-transfer reagents was employed to obtain a breakdown curve for a protonated dipeptide, Val-Pro, evaporated by LIAD. Comparison of this breakdown curve with a previously published analogous curve obtained by using substrate-assisted laser desorption (SALD) to evaporate the peptide suggests that the molecules evaporated via LIAD have a similar internal energy as those evaporated via SALD.