A novel software tool for copolymer characterization by coupling of liquid chromatography with matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

Abstract

The results of copolymer characterization by coupling of chromatography and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) techniques and subsequent calculation of copolymer composition using a novel software tool 'MassChrom2D' are presented. For high-resolution mass analysis copolymer samples were fractionated by means of liquid adsorption chromatography (LAC). These fractions were investigated off-line by MALDI-TOF MS. Various mono-n-butyl ethers of polyethylene oxide-polypropylene oxide copolymers (PEO-co-PPO) were investigated. As well as the copolymer composition presented in two-dimensional plots, the applied approach can give additional hints on specific structure-dependent separation conditions in chromatography.

10years of MS instrumental developments – Impact on LC–MS/MS in clinical chemistry

“…Research scientists especially set their focus on various desorption techniques. The combination of LC with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) started to emerge in the mid-1990s [18,19] and continuous effort was undertaken to further improve the technique [20][21][22][23][24][25]. Very recently LC-MS methods were described using desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) [26] and direct analysis in real time (DART) [27,28] interfaces.…”

Tandem mass spectrometry of synthetic polymers

“…Up to date, only two reports41, 42 exist on the analysis of copolymers by MALDI‐CID. In our experience, the MALDI‐CID analysis of copolymers is very difficult because the peaks often overlap, so that many species can be selected for CID analysis.…”

“…The authors performed MALDI‐CID measurements on the poly(fluoro oxetane)‐ co ‐(tetrahydrofuran) copolymer to obtain information regarding its architecture. Weidner et al 42 explored in a study about the off‐line coupling of liquid adsorption chromatography (LAC) near the ‘critical’ conditions with MALDI‐TOF MS for the analysis of various mono‐ n ‐butyl ethers of poly(ethylene oxide)‐ b ‐poly(propylene oxide) block copolymers (PEO‐ b ‐PPO). The composition of PEO‐ co ‐PPO was presented in two‐dimensional plots using a newly developed software.…”

“…Several reports55–59 exist about the ESI‐MS n analysis of copolymers, compared to the two publications41, 42 describing MALDI‐CID as fragmentation technique. Adamus55 investigated two random biodegradable copolyester macromolecules by applying ESI ion trap MS combined with MS n .…”

Liquid chromatography at critical conditions in ternary mobile phases: Gradient elution along the critical line

“…Obviously, this cannot be achieved by simple methods: typically, 2-D methods are required, such as 2-D-LC [1][2][3][4][5][6] and chromatography coupled with MS, especially with MALDI-TOF-MS [7]. In some cases, combination of chromatography and NMR spectroscopy may be very useful [8][9][10][11][12].…”