Fragile organic molecules

Unlike antibodies, which are fragile proteins that must be refrigerated for storage, aptamers are stable organic molecules with a long shelf life at room temperature. Aptamers have tremendous potential for use in highly specific chemical sensors. 

A convincing body of experimental, information, now available in the literature, serves as confirmation for the possibility to desorb molecular ions out of the condensed phase even for organic molecules which are generally considered nonvolatile and/or fragile and do therefore not lend themselves to classical mass spectrometric analysis. Here the laser-MS competes with techniques such as static SIMS or FABMS, plasma- and field-desorption. 

In their bulk form, many organic materials are difficult to handle and single crystals can be extremely fragile. The ability to form high-quaHty thin layers of these materials can therefore present particular difficulties. Here, an overview of the methods that can be used is presented. Emphasis will be given to those techniques that can be used to build up thin films of organic molecules at the molecular level (i.e., film... 

MALDI is a soft ionization technique used for the analysis of biomolecules (biopolymers such as proteins, peptides, and sugars) and other large organic molecules, such as polymers, dendrimers, and other macromolecules, which tend to be fragile and fragment when ionized by more conventional ionization methods. It is most similar in character to ESI both in relative softness and the ions produced. 

For those reasons, some have suggested that life may have begun with an alternative organic compound as a genetic material, not RNA, but have been based on molecules that are less fragile.30 They are commonly suggested to be molecules that do not have carbohydrates in their backbones. Underlying that concept is the notion... 

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