ANALYSIS OF PHOTOABLATION PRODUCTS RESULTING FROM POLYMER MATERIALS BY SUPERSONIC BEAM MULTIPHOTON IONIZATION TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Photoablation products arising from polymer materials were examined by supersonic beam spectrometry, and the results are compared with those obtained by thermal decomposition, The high selectivity provided by s upersonic beam spectrometry allows detection of minor species, e.g., s tyrene occurred from poly(alpha-methylstyrene) by cleavage of a methyl group and by proton rearrangement. Because ablation techniques involv e high temperatures, thermally stable materials such as poly(p-methyls tyrene) can be examined, The latter material is difficult to examine b y thermal decomposition, even at 350 degrees C, It is also possible to differentiate between isomer ablation products, e.g., alpha-methylsty rene and p-methylstyrene, The instrumental setup described herein was used to examine several authentic samples, such as ABS resin (acryloni trile-butadiene-styrene) and O-ring (SBR, styrene-butadiene rubber), a s well as polystyrene foam, As a result, a styrene segment could be co nfirmed to be present in these materials, However, no evidence was fou nd for its presence in a glue sample that was suspected to contain sty rene on the basis of conventional mass spectrometry, The latter findin g confirms the high degree of selectivity of the technique.