Solvent optimization is an important procedure in desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) and in this study the effects of solvent surface tension are explored. Data are presented for methanol/water/surfactant solvent systems, which show increases in ion signals of more than an order of magnitude when low concentrations of surfactants are added to the standard methanol/water (1:1) spray solvent. Examples of analytes tested include food chemicals, peptides, pharmaceuticals, and drugs of abuse. The improvement in ion intensity is mainly attributed to the effect of surface tension in producing smaller spray droplets, which are shown to cover a larger surface area. Surfactant-containing spray solutions allowed extension of DESI-MS analysis to previously intractable analytes like melamine and highly hydrophobic compounds like the sudan dyes. ( [3][4][5][6][7][8], which is used for surface sampling [9,10], high throughput analysis [11,12], and chemical imaging [13][14][15][16][17], largely because of its applicability to in situ analyte detection from unmodified surfaces. In DESI, a nebulized electrospray of high-velocity charged microdroplets is directed at a surface from which the solvent extracts analyte and carries it to the mass spectrometer in the form of secondary microdroplets. This methodology has been applied in a variety of disciplines including forensics [18,19], environmental science [20], food science [12,21], and pharmaceutical science [22]. With increased interest in ambient desorption mass spectrometry, the need has arisen to develop more versatile solvent systems that are applicable to a wider range of samples than is currently the case. One aspect of this effort is the use of non-aqueous spray solutions [23] and another is the addition of reagents to the spray solvent chosen to react and give ionic derivatives of the analytes of interest [24]. Both are discussed further below. In this work, we explore the special properties of spray solutions containing surfactants, in an attempt to increase the ion intensity and to learn more about the mechanisms of DESI.Three mechanisms have been identified in DESI, all falling under the rubric of droplet pick-up. The first and best established is the droplet micro-extraction mechanism [25,26]. In this mechanism, initial droplets arriving at the surface form a localized and probably discontinuous liquid thin film, which dissolves analyte present on the surface. Subsequent droplet-liquid-thin-film collisions produce secondary microdroplets containing the analyte, which are then sucked into the mass spectrometer for mass/charge analysis. A second mechanism is believed to involve gas-phase ion/molecule reactions [2]. In this case, vaporization of the analyte from the surface is followed by fast charge-transfer reactions with protonated (or other) solvent molecules or droplets to produce charged analytes, which are then transferred into the mass spectrometer for mass analysis. A third mechanism, which also seems to make a limited contribution to ion production in ...