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Fundamental Studies And Bioanalytical Applications Of Nanostructured-Initiator Mass Spectrometry (Nims), Jin Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Nanostructured-Initiator Mass Spectrometry (NIMS), which uses ‘initiator’ molecules trapped within a nanostructured material to assist the release and ionization of intact molecules adsorbed on that material's surface upon laser or ion irradiation, is a new soft desorption/ ionization technique with several positive attributes including extraordinarily high detection sensitivities, relatively simple sample preparation protocols, and can be initiated using photon or ion irradiation sources. As result NIMS has a great deal of potential for the ready detection of small molecules from complex biofluids including metabolites, and for tissue imaging.

In the thesis, a variety of nanostructured materials including porous silicon (pSi), …