Laser desorption–ionization time of flight mass spectrometry of various carbon materials

• Published in: Carbon (New York) 2006-04, Vol.44 (5), p.840-847
• Main Authors: Šedo, Ondrej, Alberti, Milan, Janča, Jan, Havel, Josef
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon clusters; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Fullerenes and related materials; diamonds, graphite; Laser irradiation; Mass spectroscopy; Materials science; Physics; Specific materials
• ISSN: 0008-6223; 1873-3891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2005.10.025

The possibilities of commercially available MALDI-TOF mass spectrometric instrumentation equipped with 337 nm nitrogen laser in carbon materials analysis have been examined. Laser desorption–ionization of synthetic diamond, graphite, glassy carbon, carbon nano-tubes, and diamond-like thin layer results in the formation of two positively charged ( C n + ; n = 1 – 31 and odd-numbered 44–346) and one negatively charged carbon cluster set ( C n - ; n = 1 – 19 ). Fullerene C 60 was analyzed for comparison. From the C n + clusters mass spectra, several similarities, concerning “magic number” ions with high signal intensities, can be observed. It is concluded that differing carbon materials are subjected by UV-laser pulses to similar physico-chemical changes. Heavy carbon clusters of low stability and characteristic loss of neutral C 3 particle in case of the smaller clusters during post-source decay (PSD) implies that the species observed do not possess stable fullerene structure, which might have been expected for C n species with n ⩽ 20.