2018/04/06 by Sergio Domínguez-Medina, Dominguez-Medina, Sergio, Shawn Fostner +23
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · Medicine · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #Bacteriophages and microbial interactions #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Plant Virus Research Studies #Polyomavirus and related diseases
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1804.02340
openalex publication_date 2018/04/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Most technologies, including conventional mass spectrometry, struggle to\nmeasure the mass of particles in the MDa to GDa range. Although this mass range\nappears optimal for nanomechanical resonators, early nanomechanical-MS systems\nsuffered from prohibitive sample loss, extended analysis time or inadequate\nresolution. Here, we report on a novel system architecture combining\nnebulization of the analytes from solution, their efficient transfer and\nfocusing without relying on electromagnetic fields, and the mass measurements\nof individual particles using nanomechanical resonator arrays. This system\ndetermined the mass distribution of ~30 MDa polystyrene nanoparticles with a\ndetection efficiency 6 orders of magnitude higher than previous\nnanomechanical-MS systems with ion guides, and successfully performed the\nhighest molecular mass measurement to date with less than 1 picomole of\nbacteriophage T5 105 MDa viral capsids.\n