FTICR-MS characterisation of (co-)polymers

Strategies for the mass spectrometric characterisation of complex polymeric systems are generally divided in direct and indirect analyses. Both strategies have been employed in our external ion source 7T FTICR-MS and can answer most of the questions posed by polymer chemists. We have used MALDI-FTICR-MS for the determination of molecular weight distributions of both homo-polymers (derivatised Polyethyleneglycol, Polystyrene and Polymethylmethacrylate) as more complex co-polymers (EO-PO). The high resolution of our FTICR-MS, is used to characterise several polymers consisting of a complex permutation of two monomeric units and five different end-groups.