Desorption nonvolatile molecules from surfaces

Much of the current interest in time-of-flight mass spectrometers is driven by instruments which desorb nonvolatile molecules (particularly peptides and other biological molecules) from surfaces. These methods include plasma desorption mass spectrometry (PDMS), laser desorption (LD), and matrix-assisted laser desorp-tion/ionization (MALDI), and they greatly simplify the design of time-of-flight mass spectrometers, since they effectively eliminate both the time- and spatial-distribution problems. 

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