Electronic sputtering of biomolecules and its application in mass spectrometry

In 1974 Macfarlane discovered that fast heavy ions from a 252-Cf source can desorb and ionize molecules from a solid surface. The mass of the molecules was determined by time-of-flight technique. It has been shown that the desorption mechanism is associated with the electron part of the stopping power of the primary ion and the name 'electron sputtering' has been adopted for the phenomenon to distinguish it from the well-known sputtering process with ions of KeV energy. A review of electronic sputtering of biomolecules will be given as well as recent measurements on Langmuir-Blodgett films. One important application of electronic sputtering is in the field of mass spectrometry. With this technique large and nonvolatile molecules can be studied. Particularly adsorption of biomolecules to a nitrocellulose backing has proven to be very useful. Examples will be given of mass spectra from peptides with a molecular weight above 20,000 u. (author)