“RaMassays”: Synergistic Enhancement of Plasmon-Free Raman Scattering and Mass Spectrometry for Multimodal Analysis of Small Molecules

• DOI: 10.1038/srep34521
• Publication Date: 2016-10-04T13:06:58Z
• Authors: Ivano Alessandri; Irene Vassalini; Michela Bertuzzi; Nicolò Bontempi; Maurizio Memo; Alessandra Gianon...
• Keywords: LASER-DESORPTION-IONIZATION; SERS SENSITIVITY; SPECTROSCOPY; MALDI; TIO2; PEPTIDES; NANOPARTICLES; NANOANTENNAS; ENVIRONMENT; DISCOVERY; 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology; Article

Abstract SiO 2 /TiO core/shell (T-rex) beads were exploited as “all-in-one” building-block materials to create analytical assays that combine plasmon-free surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and assisted laser desorption/ionization (SALDI) mass spectrometry (RaMassays). Such a multi-modal approach relies on the unique optical properties of T-rex beads, which are able harvest manage light in both UV Vis range, making ionization more efficient. RaMassays successfully applied detection small (molecular weight, M.W. <400 Da) molecules with key relevance biochemistry pharmaceutical analysis. Caffeine cocaine utilized molecular probes test combined SERS/SALDI response RaMassays, showing excellent sensitivity reproducibility. The differentiation between amphetamine/ephedrine theophylline/theobromine couples demonstrated synergistic reciprocal reinforcement SERS SALDI. Finally, conversion L-tyrosine L-DOPA was probe tools for characterizing reaction intermediates without introducing any spurious effects. exhibit important advantages over plasmonic nanoparticles terms reproducibility, absence interference potential integration multiplexed devices.