The analysis of polymeric materials can be quite challenging because such samples are often of complex nature due to the presence of various groups of additives, compounding ingredients, and fillers. Of special importance are stabilizers that protect the material from degradation by thermal stress during manufacture or from environmental impact during use. Apart from intact stabilizers, the deg...

Introduction: Microdosimetry is a fundamental method that studies the nature of energy transfer in micron volumes in the particular biological cells. In a biological target, the amount of ionization does not indicate the magnitude of biological radiation-induced damage. However, the severity of biological harm depends strongly on the amount of the linear energy transfer along t...

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Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) has high resolution, so provides a viable method to characterize extremely complex mixtures. The molecular formulas of individual components are determined simply by accurate mass measurement. Here, recent advances in FT-ICR MS application to pe­ troleum derived heavy materials are reviewed after a brief introduction of the...

The current developments in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and its applications to the analysis of pharmaceuticals are reviewed. Various mass spectrometric techniques, including electrospray and nanospray ionization, atmospheric pressure chemical ionization and photoionization and their interface with liquid chromatographic techniques are described. These include high performan...

Laser desorption/ionization techniques were firstly developed in the early seventieth years [1] but only in the late eighteenth [2, 3], with the introduction of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization, they became an established method for the mass spectrometry of macromolecular compounds. The role of matrix is to absorb UV laser radiation and to give the energy to the analyte, often not ab...

With the increasing popularity of atmospheric pressure ionization (API) mass spectrometric techniques, electrospray ionization has become a widespread tool for quantitative determinations. When the sample matrix is complex, electrospray ionization can result in the formation of nondesolvated, charged residues as well as analyte ions (see Figure 1). These nondesolvated residues contaminate the i...

A difference diffusion-based NMR technique and cold-spray ionization mass spectrometry were employed as a solution-based approach for identifying a ligand binding with a protein receptor. The difference diffusion-based NMR technique, called difference NOE-pumping, can directly detect the ligand interacting with a protein receptor. This technique uses a simple pulse sequence and the diffusion fi...

In our group, we perform successfully MALDI by using femtosecond laser techniques in order to examine the ionization process. One recent result is MALDI with ultrashort laser pulses in the near IR (central wavelength of =800 nm) [2]. In this wavelength regime, used matrix substances have no absorption bands. Experiments with different laser pulse durations suggest that multi photon ionization i...

Quantitative analysis with mass spectrometry (MS) is important but challenging. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) coupled with time-of-flight (TOF) MS offers superior sensitivity, resolution and speed, but such techniques have numerous disadvantages that hinder quantitative analyses. This review summarizes essential obstacles to analyte quantification with MALDI-TOF MS, includ...