Development and Application of a Brush Spray Derived from a Calligraphy Brush Style Synthetic Hair Pen for Use in ESI/MS.
The development of a novel type of a sampling/ionization kit for use in electrospray ionization/mass spectrometry is reported. Using a small calligraphy brush style synthetic hair pen (nylon brush) and analogous to paper spray mass spectrometry, the analytes can be collected, elution/desorption and then ionized from the surface of the nylon brush. The body of the kit was produced by means of a commercial 3D printer, in which ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) was used as the starting material. Meanwhile, a small nylon brush was embedded inside a 3D printed plastic cell, in which a solvent was supplied to rinse the brush by means of capillary action. The size and weight of the kit were 1 g and 4 cm, respectively. The kit is disposable and it has various functions, including non invasive sampling, sample evaporation and ionization. As a result, when a type of pesticide was selected as the test sample (dimethoate; C5H12NO3PS2) the limit of detection was determined to be 0.1 mg/mL. Collecting the pesticide from a leaf surface (lettuce) was also successful. The process for fabricating the nylon brush kit and the optimized experimental conditions are reported herein.
Mass spectrometry