Abstract
Current polymer formulations contain mixtures of copolymers to tailor the performance needs. Reversed-phase liquid chromatography is commonly used to separate polymers according to their chemical composition by adsorption, partition or precipitation mechanisms if retention is not influenced by molecular mass. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) has mainly been used to identify low molecular mass polymers and additives. In this paper, we report on the use of LC–MS for the quantitative analysis of copolymer composition of several high-molecular-mass polymers by monitoring the low-mass fragments formed by thermal decomposition and electron impact ionization when using a particle beam interface. The fragment ions produced are proportional to the comonomers present and are quantitatively related to the copolymer composition. Area ratio calibration with copolymers of known composition is used to determine the composition of unknown copolymers of similar structure.
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