TA@Au Nanoflower-assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Metabolite Detection

Novel tannic acid functionalized gold nanoflowers (TA@AuNFs) based laser desorption and ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) has been introduced for the analysis of small molecule metabolites. TA@AuNFs were synthesized using a one-pot green method and were demonstrated as an excellent LDI-MS matrix in metabolic analysis. Subsequently, our proposed method was utilized in metabolic profiling of complex biological samples such as serum, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, and prostatic fluid, with high signal intensity $(\sim10^{5})$. This research shows promising prospects in the analysis of clinical metabolites and disease diagnosis.