The application of a recently developed direct couplingof high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC)and infrared matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionizationorthogonal extracting time-of-flight mass spectrometry(Dreisewerd, K.; Müthing, J.; Rohlfing, A.; Meisen, I.;Vukelic, Z.; Peter-Katalinic, J.; Hillenkamp, F.; Berkenkamp, S.
Anal. Chem. 2005,
77, 4098-4107) to theanalysis of phospholipid mixtures is demonstrated. Mixtures of six phospholipid types were exemplarily analyzed.The sensitivity was found to be in the range between about10 and 150 pmol of material spotted for HPTLC, depending on phospholipid acidity,
Rf value, and ion polarity.The lateral resolution of the analysis is on the order ofthe laser focus diameter of about 220 × 300
m
2,allowing differentiation between phospholipid species ofdifferent acyl chain composition within one single HPTLCband, which were undistiguishable by a mere visualassessment. Analyte diffusion due to the addition ofglycerol to the HPTLC plate was found to be-if at allnotable-of only minor importance.