The use of a commercial ESI Z-spray source for ambient ion soft landing and microdroplet reactivity experiments

Abstract In this study, the ability of an unmodified ESI Z-spray source to carry out ambient ion soft landing (AISL) and microdroplet reactions (MR) was tested. To this aim, heme proteins were ionized and landed onto the working area of multi-walled carbon nanotubes electrodes. The voltammetric and spectroscopic analyses of the modified electrodes evidenced a strong interaction of unfolded structures of the heme proteins with the carbon nanotubes surface. Moreover, the possibility to use the ESI Z-spray source to study microdroplet reactions was attempted by exploring the accelerated acid-catalyzed decomposition of carbohydrates. The study demonstrated that a commercial ESI Z-spray source can provide successful modifications of surfaces by AISL, and represents a suitable platform for the study of accelerated microdroplet reactions.