Structural characterization of synthetic polymers using thermal-assisted atmospheric pressure glow discharge mass spectrometry

Abstract

With the development of material science and the practical needs of the polymer industry, rapid characterization of synthetic polymers using mass spectrometry is of sustainable interest. Herein a new method for characterizing synthetic polymers using thermal-assisted atmospheric pressure glow discharge mass spectrometry (TA-APGD-MS) is established. After illustration of the mechanism of ion formation, typical polymer samples such as polystyrene (PS), polyoxymethylene (POM) and poly (butanediol succinate) (PBS) were directly characterized at the molecular level using TA-APGD-MS. The thermal degradation products of synthetic polymers including monomer units and/or other fragments were rapidly detected by tandem mass spectrometry, providing rich information about the chemical composition for the structural characterization of homo- and co-polymers. The result suggests that TA-APGD-MS allows direct and rapid analysis of both synthetic homo-polymers and co-polymers under ambient conditions without any sample pretreatment. This method features high throughput, high sensitivity and rich information, showing promising applications in polymer science.

Development of organic SIMS system with Ar‐GCIB and IMS‐4f

“…Typical organic mass peak‐originated PS (tropylium ion and depolymerized cations) are clearly observed on mass spectrum (b). The mass spectrum represents similar pattern compared with the one of thermal‐assisted atmospheric pressure glow discharge mass spectrometry, and the fragmentation mechanism is described in the article . On O 2 + beam irradiation (c), typical organic peaks of tropylium ion and depolymerized cation are disappeared and mass peaks are shifted to lower mass positions.…”

Polymer architectures via mass spectrometry and hyphenated techniques: A review

“…Several co-workers have used diverse techniques to investigate the polymer structure and pyrolysis products. For example, Zhang et al utilized thermal-assisted atmospheric pressure glow discharge (TA-APGD) for structural characterization of polystyrene (PS) and poly(oxymethylene) (POM) [14]. The analysis of the degradation products by TA-APGD-MS provided information on the structural composition of the polymer without any sample pretreatment which can particularly be important for the analysis of polymer materials that are difficult to dissolve.…”

“…Thermal-MS based techniquesSimilarly to homopolymers, thermal degradation techniques are useful for accomplishing detailed evaluations of block copolymer structures. For example, Zhang et al used thermalassisted atmospheric pressure glow discharge mass spectrometry (TA-APGDMS) to evaluate block copolymer fragments[14]. The block copolymers were based on POM and poly(butadiene succinate) (PBS) segments.…”

Plasma-based ambient sampling/ionization/transmission integrated source for mass spectrometry

“…Since the rst description of ambient MS in desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), 1 direct analysis in real time (DART) 2 and desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (DAPCI), 3 more than 30 ambient sampling/ionization methods have been reported. 4 Among the leading ambient ion sources based on plasma include DART, low-temperature plasma (LTP) probe, 5 owing aerglow-atmospheric pressure glow discharge (FA-APGD or FAPA), 6,7 desorption corona-beam ionization (DCBI), 8 and microwave-induced plasma desorption/ ionization (MIPDI). 9 This type of ionization source presents few restrictions on sample surface types and few possibilities of electric shock, which is propitious to atmospheric pressure sample analysis.…”