Electrospray Mass Spectrometric Analysis and Photocatalytic Degradation of Polyethoxylate Surfactants Used in Wool Scouring

Abstract

Electrospray mass spectrometry (ESMS) has been used to identify the mixture of components in three nonionic surfactants, nonylphenol ethoxylate (NPE), secondary alcohol ethoxylate (SAE), and primary alcohol ethoxylate (PAE). In each case singly protonated species are observed with the number of ethylene oxide units ranging from 4 to 16. Collisionally activated decomposition of protonated SAE leads to cleavage of the secondary carbon-oxygen bond to give protonated ethylene oxide fragment ions. ESMS is used to show that the products of the photocatalytic decomposition of SAE are the same as those produced by the collisionally activated decompositions. The surfactants can also be singly ionised in solution

Characterization of synthetic and commercial trisiloxane surfactant materials

“…46 CID fragmentation has been observed for some surfactants by API-MS, but only for protonated species and only for branched alcohol ethoxylates, nonionic surfactants where the polyethoxylate chain is attached to a secondary carbon. 46,47 The conditions used to achieve this CID did not provide fragmentation of the M 2 D-C 3 -O-(EO) n -CH 3 molecules. Internal electron impact (IEI)-FTICR-MS analysis also failed to provide any diagnostic fragment information for these compounds, and this has also been the case for other silicone surfactants under API-MS. …”

Electrospray mass spectrometry applied to inorganic and organometallic chemistry

“…An ESMS stludy of surfactants whose constitutions are shown in Structure 17 has been reported (49). All three surfactanis were readily protonated by the usual mobile phase of MeOH/H,O/HOAc to give the intact protonated ions, and, for the SAE mixture, the presence of ions with (m + n ) = 9 , 10, and 11 was readily discerned with x = 4-16.…”

Towards the water solubilization of [Pt2(μ-S)2(PPh3)4] derivatives by polyether functionalization – a synthetic and mass spectrometric investigation

“…Although PEGylation of metal complexes is less well studied, there are sufficient literature precedents [14] to confirm the validity of the approach, including applications to platinum complexes having biological activity [15]. Furthermore, ESI mass spectrometry [16], which we have extensively used in developing the chemistry of [Pt 2 (μ-S) 2 (PPh 3 ) 4 ] [17], is a powerful technique for characterization of polyether-containing materials, easily able to characterize the typically complex mixtures of oligomers and cationic adducts thereof [18][19][20]. Indeed, some of the very earliest studies on ESI MS recognized the power of the technique for characterizing polyethers [21].…”