Abstract
This commentary article provides short accounts of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and time of flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS), particularly perspective views of MALDI using an infrared light source (IR-MALDI), and MALDI in conjunction with a tunable infrared free-electron laser (FEL-MALDI) as a state-of-the-art IR-MALDI methodology. The benefits and precautions to use FEL in MALDI are discussed. A novel approach to address the low-sensitivity issue of FEL-MALDI, simultaneous exposure to UV and FEL, is proposed. In the proposed method, each laser can be adjusted to minimize the excess energy under the conditions of rapid heating, which allows analyte molecules to be desorbed and ionized. The current status of the development and preliminary data are reported.
