The effect of electrochemically grown and vapour deposited coatings on the build-up of contamination on stainless steel surfaces in the electrospray ionisation source of a mass spectrometer is investigated, together with their influence on the robustness of the instrument response. Quantification of the contamination build-up on flat samples, using white light interferometry, allowed the identification of the most beneficial treatments. Coating with electrochemically-grown anodic oxide and cathodic oxide films and amorphous carbon films doped with silicon or nitrogen resulted in reduced contamination compared with the uncoated stainless steel surface, and provided improved robustness of the instrument response. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.