The use of conductive polymers as a substrate for paper spray ionization mass spectrometry

Abstract

The use of conductive polymers (CPs) as a substrate in ambient paper spray ionization was achieved under high DC voltage. Some pharmaceuticals, drugs of abuse, adulterants, metabolites, and impurities showed a signal that was higher in absolute intensity compared to that of uncoated papers. Surface characterization of the coated paper confirmed that the modified features on the paper surface were responsible for high electrical fields, signal stability, and reusability. The linearity and performance of CP-coated papers were demonstrated for a range of forensically relevant analytes, proving that CP-coated papers are an easy and cheap alternative for use in both qualitative and quantitative analyses.