A Laminar Flow Nebulizer for Aerosol MALDI

A laminar flow nebulizer was developed for use with aerosol matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry. The nebulizer consists of a glass pneumatic nebulizer combined with a laminar flow tube. Particles formed at the pneumatic nebulizer are entrained in an auxiliary gas stream that dries the particles in the laminar flow tube. The mass range of the reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer has been extended to greater than 5000 Da:  a mass spectrum of bovine insulin is reported at a mass resolution of 100. Mass spectra of bovine insulin and the peptides bradykinin and angiotensin II contain features resulting from prompt analyte dissociation prior to ion acceleration.