Boronate affinity Metal–Organic frameworks for highly efficient cis-diol molecules in-situ enrichment and surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometric detection

Abstract Development of novel matrix for surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (SALDI-MS) is a hot-spot in research frontiers. Herein, we established novel SALDI-MS approach for the analysis of cis-diol small molecules by using boronate affinity metal-organic frameworks (BA-MOFs) as the sorbent for extraction and later as matrix for SALDI. In the meantime, the prepared BA-MOFs exhibited several significant merits, such as excellent selectivity, tolerance to interference and fast binding equilibria. By integrating the advantages of MOFs and the molecular recognition of boronate affinity, a novel platform for simultaneous enrichment and MS detection of cis-diol small molecules was proposed for the first time. There are only two steps in the operation procedure, which greatly simplified the whole experimental workflow. Efficient analysis of cis-diol small molecules in real samples were also well demonstrated. This proposed novel protocol not only gave new insights into the application of functionalized MOFs, but also promoted the development of SALDI- MS.