Analysis of Additives in Polyethylene with Desorption Chemical Ionization/Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Desorption chemical ionization with ammonia as the reagent gas in combination with tandem mass spectrometry is described for the analysis of additives in polyethylene. The additives were extracted with toluene and then analyzed directly by desorption chemical ionization and tandem mass spectrometry. With ammonia as the reagent gas, mass spectra of additives were found to contain intense pseudomolecular ions with very little fragmentation. In addition, low-molecular-weight polyethylene molecules extracted with the additives were barely detectable, and thus there was less likelihood of interference. Collision-induced dissociation of the pseudomolecular ions provided great confidence in the assignment of additives.

Analysis of a Five-component Mixture of Polymer Additives by Means of High Energy Mass Spectrometry and Tandem Mass Spectrometry

“…These spectra differ greatly from the low-energy CID spectra obtained by Chen er al. 23 Intense fragment ion peaks at mlz 203 and mlz 219 appear in the CID spectra of all Irganox compounds studied and these two ions may be considered as diagnostic, indicating the presence of the di-tert-butyl substituted alkyl phenol base structure. Abundant fragment ions at mlz219 and 203 are also observed by means of LSIMS-MSIMS from other compounds that have the same base structure as that shown in Fig.…”

Characterization of additives in plastics: From MS to MS10 multistep mass analysis and theoretical calculations of tris(2,4‐di‐tert‐butylphenyl)phosphate

“…Owing to its high sensitivity and specificity, and ability to characterize and quantify wide classes of molecules, mass spectrometry (MS) plays a very important role in characterizing plastic contaminants. Owing to their different chemical structures, different ionization techniques, 2 such as electron ionization, 3,4 laser desorption, 5 secondary‐ion MS, 6 desorption chemical ionization, 7,8 matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionization, 9 atmospheric solid analysis probe, 10 atmospheric pressure photoionization, 11,12 atmospheric pressure chemical ionization, 4,11,13,14 electrospray, 11,14–17 and ambient ionization MS, 18 have been used.…”

Analysis of Polymer Additives by Matrix‐Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization/Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer Using Delayed Extractionand Collision Induced Dissociation

“…Moving to ward higher mo lec u lar weight ad di tives with less vol a til ity, con ven tional MS tech niques such as elec tron ion iza tion (EI), chem i cal ion iza tion (CI) and GC-MS are gen er ally not suit able for their anal y sis. Thus, soft ion iza tion tech niques such as field desorption, fast atom bom bard ment (FAB), 11,12 desorption chem i cal ion iza tion (DCI), 13,14 la ser desorption, [15][16][17][18][19][20] electrospray ion iza tion (ESI) 21 and at mo spheric pres sure chem i cal ion iza tion (APCI) 22,23 all have been in ves ti gated for their util ity in the anal y sis of polymer ad di tives ei ther in poly mer ex tracts or di rectly from poly mer ma tri ces. Ear lier stud ies from our lab o ra tory sug gested that DCI in com bi na tion with low and high en ergy CID was ca pa ble of de tec tion poly mer ad di tives in poly eth yl ene with out prior chro mato graphic sep a ra tion.…”

“…Ear lier stud ies from our lab o ra tory sug gested that DCI in com bi na tion with low and high en ergy CID was ca pa ble of de tec tion poly mer ad di tives in poly eth yl ene with out prior chro mato graphic sep a ra tion. 13,14 While DCI is quite use ful to the anal y sis of a va ri ety of ad di tives, it does have lim ited capa bil ity in the anal y sis of high mo lec u lar weight ad di tives. 13,14 Since its de vel op ment, ma trix-assisted la ser desorption/ioniza tion (MALDI) has been widely used as a soft ion iza tion tech nique for very large mol e cules.…”

“…13,14 While DCI is quite use ful to the anal y sis of a va ri ety of ad di tives, it does have lim ited capa bil ity in the anal y sis of high mo lec u lar weight ad di tives. 13,14 Since its de vel op ment, ma trix-assisted la ser desorption/ioniza tion (MALDI) has been widely used as a soft ion iza tion tech nique for very large mol e cules. Fur ther more, MALDI is known to have less ma trix ef fect in com par i son with FAB or ESI.…”