Q: Is the MALDI data supporting the EDX results?

A: Certainly there is lead in the powder as was shown in the EDX - it is easy to find since so much of it is lead. There is also Gold on the foil, however, because there are so many isotopes of Pd, it is difficult to decipher.

It comes down to the nature of the differing analysis techniques / way the process works. In SEM/EDX, you can literally see by colour or structure interesting features and specifically analyse them - Au, Ag and Pd stand out against Ni, or say lead as it is just squashed, it looks soft. There is a new video above where you can see how the Shimadzu MALDI unit just scans an area to determine the isotopic nature of the material.

Q: are adducts combinations of atoms such as atomic pairs?

A: Yes, and you can see the combinations of isotopic weights (based on natural isotopic ratio data) in the data. A new video has been added above to help explain this