배윤경 (동국대학교 화학과)

김영관 (동국대학교 화학과)

배윤경 (동국대학교 화학과)

김영관 (동국대학교 화학과)

Carbon-based materials are widely known as efficient matrices for laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LDI-TOF-MS) analysis of small molecules. This is mainly due to their low background signals, excellent photothermal conversion efficiency, and high electrical and thermal conductivity. Among them, ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) are particularly important owing to their high specific surface area and well-organized micro/nanopore structures, which are beneficial to the enrichment of environmental organic pollutants. Zeolite-templated carbons (ZTCs) are one of the recently developed OMCs having extremely large surface area and high crystallinity, enabling efficient enrichment and laser desorption/ionization. Herein, we employed beta ZTC (BTC) and Y ZTC (YTC) with a cylindrical and a cage-type microporous structure, respectively, as matrices for LDI-TOF-MS analysis of various small molecules, including amino acids, saccharides, environmental pollutants, and antibiotics. Furthermore, their performance was verified in complex media such as PBS/BSA buffer and seawater. As a result, both BTC and YTC exhibited higher signal intensities and lower limits of detection (LODs) for most analytes than CMK-8, a traditional OMC. The ZTCs exhibited remarkable performance for enrichment and subsequent LDI-TOF-MS analysis owing to their unique ordered porous structure and surface properties, highlighting their potential as practical probes for reliable LDI-TOF-MS analysis.

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