Doped gelatin films as a model matrix for molecular secondary ion mass spectrometry studies of biological soft tissue.

Porcine gelatin films doped with a number of biological compounds at various concentrations and prepared by spin-casting have been used as model biological tissue matrices for studying organic ion emission in molecular secondary ion mass spectrometry. For many compounds, portions of the working curves were found to be linear over several orders of magnitude in concentration. Detection limits for the, analyzed compounds were in the parts per million range for several organic salt compounds but high (0.1 wt%) for others. Owing to the presence of a significant chemical background, the poorest detection limits were generally obtained from compounds with low molecular weights. Secondary ion yield matrix effects, indicated by a reduction in ionization efficiency at higher concentrations, were observed for several organic salt compounds.