Comparing vacuum and extreme ultraviolet radiation for postionization of laser desorbed neutrals from bacterial biofilms and organic fullerenes

Vacuum and extreme ultraviolet radiation from 8 to 24 eV generated at a synchrotron was used to postionize laser desorbed neutrals of antibiotic-treated biofilms and a modified fullerene using laser desorption postionization mass spectrometry (LDPI-MS). Results show detection of the parent ion, various fragments, and extracellular material from biofilms using LDPI-MS with both vacuum and extreme ultraviolet photons. Parent ions were observed for both cases, but extreme ultraviolet photons (16–24 eV) induced more fragmentation than vacuum ultraviolet (8–14 eV) photons.