NEW ASPECTS OF DETERMINATION OF POLYMER HETEROGENEITY BY 2-DIMENSIONAL ORTHOGONAL LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY AND MALDI-TOF-MS

Liquid Adsorption Chromatography at Critical Conditions (LACCC) of pol ymers in combination with Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/lonization Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) and different types of detectors is a very convenient method for the characterization of pol ymer heterogeneities. A pathway for working out these methods is given . Additionally to the coupling of different chromatographic modes a de vice for postcolumn reaction detection is described and applied. Examp les of applications are given for aliphatic and aromatic polyesters. M ALDI-TOF-MS, reaction detection and relations between ''critical'' sol vent composition and structure of polyesters are discussed. Conclusion s concerning the mechanism of thermal degradation of polylactides are shown.