Metal Powder Substrate-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Polyethylene Analysis (original) (raw)
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Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 2001
Polyethylene's inert nature and difficulty to dissolve in conventional solvents at room temperature present special problems for sample preparation and ionization in mass spectrometric analysis. We present a study of ionization behavior of several polyethylene samples with molecular masses up to 4000 Da in laser desorption ionization (LDI) time-of-flight mass spectrometers equipped with a 337 nm laser beam. We demonstrate unequivocally that silver or copper ion attachment to saturated polyethylene can occur in the gas phase during the UV LDI process. In LDI spectra of polyethylene with molecular masses above approximately 1000 Da, low mass ions corresponding to metal-alkene structures are observed in addition to the principal distribution. By interrogating a well-characterized polyethylene sample and a long chain alkane, C94H190, these low mass ions are determined to be the fragmentation products of the intact metal-polyethylene adduct ions. It is further illustrated that fragm...
Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 1996
Matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization (MALDI) time of flight is shown to give a molar peak area response for isolated methylmethacrylate oligomers that have 25 and 50 repeat units when run on three different instruments in reflectron or linear mode and using three different matrix materials. In addition, fragmentation was not observed in any of the three different matrices or at higher laser power. No spectral differences were observed for syndiotactic and isotactic methylmethacrylate oligomers. These results suggest that the low most probable peak values observed for narrow distribution polytmethylmethacrylate) standards by MALDI mass spectrometry are not the result of mass discrimination or fragmentation.
Quantitative mass spectrometry of technical polymers: a comparison of several ionization methods
European Mass …, 1998
The development of soft ionization methods such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), electrospray ionization (ESI) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has led to an increased use of mass spectrometry in characterizing technical (synthetic) polymers. In this paper, we compare the relative performance of these three ionization methods for characterizing the molecular weights, polydispersities and quantification of relative amounts of polymer components in mixtures. Two polymers used in biomaterials, poly(dimethylsiloxane) and poly(ethylene glycol), are employed as the model polymer systems for our survey because of their well-defined molecular weights and importance as surfactants in biomaterials and because many of their surface and solutionphase properties are well understood. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization can be used to examine the surface and bulk composition of biomaterials, whereas secondary ion mass spectrometry is used for examining monolayer and submonolayer coverage of polymers on surfaces and electrospray ionization is suited for examination of extractables from biomaterials. Secondary ion mass spectrometry and electrospray show discriminate behavior against ionization of higher molecular weight oligomers, especially of poly(dimethylsiloxane). Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization appears to exhibit the best performance for reliable molecular weight determination at higher masses and polydispersity characterization as well as for quantification of components in polymer mixtures. The results are discussed within the context of the ionization mechanisms by which each soft ionization technique operates and by the attributes of the mass analyzers (time-of-flight and Fourier transform mass spectrometers) employed.
Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 1997
A quick and effective sample preparation is demonstrated for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) analysis of nonpolar polymers. Polyisoprene, polystyrene, and polybutadiene polymers were investigated by using as matrix a 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid and silver nitrate combination. Silver cationized oligomers produce useful spectra that can be signal averaged to characterize polymer distributions extending up to 6000 u by using a 3-T Fourier transform mass spectrometer. Because an electrostatic ion deceleration protocol was used to extend the mass range, trapping discrimination is shown to exist for molecular weight distributions broader than about 2500 u. However, an integral procedure can be used to reconstruct the true polymer profiles through co-addition of signal transients obtained by using various gated deceleration times. For polymers with narrower mass distributions, silver cationization along with signal averaging provides rapid and accurate polymer characterization for nonpolar polymer systems by using standard MALDI Fourier transform mass spectrometry instrumentation.
Analytical Chemistry, 1999
Rapid microanalysis of a wide variety of polyolefins was performed using pyrolysis-photoionization mass spectrometry (py-PI-MS). Solid samples (∼10 µg) were pyrolyzed on a heated probe in the source region of a timeof-flight mass spectrometer. Pyrolysates were "softly" ionized using coherent vacuum ultraviolet radiation (118 nm). The resulting mass spectra were clearly different for low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, and several ethylene/r-olefin copolymers. A combination of principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis was used to classify polyolefin samples directly from their photoionization mass spectra. The compositions of ethylene-butene and ethylene-octene copolymers were predicted using partial least-squares analyses. The values obtained using py-PI-MS were in good agreement with the measured 13 C NMR values. Samples of ethylene-octene containing 30 wt % carbon black and ethylene-butene containing 20 wt % silica were correctly classified and compositionally analyzed using py-PI-MS. Samples containing these additives are typically not amenable to study by solution-state 13 C NMR or IR.
Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 1998
Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS) can be used to determine number-and weight-average molecular weights of narrow polydispersity polymers. In this work, several possible sources of error in determining molecular weights of polymers with narrow polydispersity by MALDI-TOFMS are rigorously examined. These include the change in polymer distribution function, broadening or narrowing of the overall distribution, and the truncation of selected oligomer peaks within a distribution (i.e., the oligomer peaks at the high-and low-mass tails expected to be observed are not detected). These variations could be brought about by a limited detection sensitivity, background interference, and/or mass discrimination of oligomer analysis in MALDI-TOFMS. For narrow polydispersity polystyrenes, it is shown that by using an appropriate MALDI matrix and sample preparation protocol and a sensitive ion detection instrument, no systematic errors from these possible variations were detected within the experimental precision (0.5% relative standard deviation) of the MALDI method. It is concluded that MALDI mass spectrometry can provide accurate molecular weight and molecular weight distribution information for narrow polydispersity polymers, at least for polystyrenes examined in this work. The implications of this finding for polymer analysis are discussed. (J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 1998, 9, 275-281)
Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 2002
We report quantitative MALDI-TOF measurements for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) of two different molecular weights using the relative ratio of the signal intensities of integrated oligomer distributions for these two molecular weight distributions. By reporting the ratio of intensities of the integrals of two oligomer distributions, we assume that the ionization and desorption efficiencies, crystallization conditions and other factors affecting intensity are similar. Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA-33,000) was mixed with PDMS samples to show whether the presence of another material might affect the desorption efficiency. Quantitative values for the number-average molecular weight (M n ), weight-average molecular weight (M w ) and polydispersities (D) were calculated using the oligomer distributions. The results show a linear relationship between the analyte concentrations and the signal intensities in the range from 1,000 Da to 10,000 Da, and the desorption efficiency of these two PDMS materials was the same even in the presence of PMMA. (J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2002, 13, 914 -920)