Californium-252 plasma desorption mass spectrometry of skin lipids. Positive and negative ions formed by attachment processes.

Californium-252 plasma desorption mass spectra have been run on a series of typical lipids found in skin, including a fatty acid, a methyl and wax ester, a mono-, di- and triglyceride and an anhydride, in a effort to discover the nature of peaks caused by fingerprint contamination of the sample holders. The triglyceride was identified as the source, and peaks found by reattachment of abundant fragment ions to the original lipid were noted in several cases.