Fatty acid and sphingosine reference spectra

The number of publications reporting lipid and fatty acid time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis has increased as ToF-SIMS is increasingly applied toward the analysis of biological systems. Tissue and cell analysis through ToF-SIMS typically involves collecting mass spectrometry images that are used to characterize the local distribution of lipids and fatty acids throughout the analyzed area. Complete and reliable sets of reference spectra are required for fatty acids and lipids in order to aid in the interpretation of ToF-SIMS data from tissues and cells. Here, we present the reference spectra for eight fatty acids and sphingosine a primary component of sphingolipids. This database contains positive and negative polarity spectra using a Bi-3(+) primary ion species.