Patent ID: 7541003

Claim:
A method of detecting an analyte, said method comprising: (a) contacting said analyte with a chip comprising: (i) a planar substrate comprising a surface; (ii) an intermediate layer covalently attached to said surface, wherein said intermediate layer comprises charged linker arms; and (iii) an adsorbent film attached to said intermediate layer by an electrostatic interaction, said adsorbent film comprising a plurality of charged latex particles bound to said linker arms wherein each said charged latex particle has a diameter of about 3 microns to about 500 microns, and wherein each said charged latex particle comprises a binding functionality wherein said binding functionality interacts with said analyte, thereby adsorbing said analyte on said adsorbent film, and wherein said charged linker arms and said charged latex particles are oppositely charged; and (b) desorbing said analyte and detecting said desorbed analyte using mass spectrometry.