Comparing Vacuum and Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation for Postionization of Laser Desorbed Neutrals from Bacterial Biofilms and Organic Fullerenes.

Vacuum and extreme ultraviolet radiation from 8 - 24 eV generated at a synchrotron was used to postionize laser desorbed neutrals of antibiotic-treated biofilms and a modified fullerene using laser desorption postionization mass spectrometry (LDPI-MS). Results show detection of the parent ion, various fragments, and extracellular material from biofilms using LDPI-MS with both vacuum and extreme ultraviolet photons. Parent ions were observed for both cases, but extreme ultraviolet photons (16 - 24 eV) induced more fragmentation than vacuum ultraviolet (8 - 14 eV) photons.