HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY ATMOSPHERIC-PRESSURE NEGATIVE CHEMICAL-IONIZATION MASS-SPECTROMETRY OF 2,4-DINITROPHENYL DERIVATIVESOF AMINES - APPLICATIONS IN EPOXY CHEMISTRY

Characterisation of unknown amines in complex matrices - as commonly e ncountered in the analysis of polyamideamine- or polyamine-epoxy adduc ts - requires the use of universally applicable, interference free and robust analytical methods. A reversed-phase high-performance liquid c hromatography (RP-HPLC) method coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) is us ed to detect 2,4-dinitrophenyl (DNP) derivatives of amines by means of negative chemical ionisation at atmospheric pressure (APCI). The high selectivity and good comparability of UV and MS detection of DNP deri vatives of amines is exemplified by an amine mixture resulting from hy drolytic degradation of a polyamide-amine-epoxy adduct. The origin of hydrolytic degradation products of a commercially available epoxy-amin e adduct is discussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.