POLYMER ANALYSIS BY PHOTONS, SPRAYS, AND MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Commercial mass spectrometers have been available for more than 50 yea rs. Mass spectrometry (MS) has been applied widely to organic analysis , and during the last 20 years applications for the characterization o f complex biological macromolecules have steadily spiraled upwards. In sharp contrast, today only a handful of polymer laboratories rely on MS. Why? Here we show what modern MS can offer to polymer chemistry an d engineering. This review describes MS results on polymers that have been obtained with newer ionization techniques - matrix-assisted laser desorption (MALDI) and electrospray ionization (ESI) and by using tim e-of-f light and Fourier transform mass spectrometers. Examples illust rating structure and molecular mass determination are presented.