Composite glycerol/graphite/aromatic acid matrices for thin-layer chromatography/matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry of heterocyclic compounds

•New composite matrix was used to record TLC/MALDI mass spectra of heterocyclic compounds.•The composite matrixes consist of glycerol, graphite and conventional MALDI aromatic acidic matrix.•The approach allows increasing the intensities of analyte ions desorbed from TLC plate.

New composite matrices have been suggested for the analysis of mixtures of different synthetic organic compounds (N-containing heterocycles and erectile dysfunction drugs) by thin layer chromatography/matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TLC/MALDI-TOF). Different mixtures of classical MALDI matrices and graphite particles dispersed in glycerol were used for the registration of MALDI mass spectra directly from TLC plates after analytes separation. In most of cases, the mass spectra possessed [M+H]+ ions; however, for some analytes only [M+Na]+ and [M+K]+ ions were observed. These ions have been used to generate visualized TLC chromatograms. The described approach increases the desorption/ionization efficiencies of analytes separated by TLC, prevent spot blurring, simplifies and decrease time for sample preparation.