Radio frequency plasma polymer coatings for affinity capture MALDI mass spectrometry

Surface modification of MALDI probes is an attractive approach for combining bioaffinity isolation of targeted biomolecules with mass spectrometric analysis of the captured species. In this work, we demonstrate that a polymer thin film, produced by pulsed rf plasma polymerization of allylamine and deposited directly on a MALDI probe, can be subsequently biotinylated to develop a bioaffinity capture MALDI probe. The synthesis and characterization of the probe by XPS, FT-IR, and AFM is described, and the selective isolation of avidin from a three-component mixture of avidin, lysozyme, and cytochrome c is presented. These initial results offer encouragement for the further exploration of rf plasma polymer deposition as a novel approach for the development of on-probe affinity capture MALDI probes.