Direct mass-spectrometric polymer compound analysis

The potential of MS/MS is well documented. Tandem MS has been reviewed [238] and various books deal with the topic [203,237,239]. 

4 DIRECT MASS-SPECTROMETRIC POLYMER COMPOUND ANALYSIS 

Principles and Characteristics Mass-spectral analysis methods may be either indirect or direct. Indirect mass-spectral analysis usually requires some pretreatment (normally extraction and separation) of the material, to separate the organic additives from the polymers and inorganic fillers. The mass spectrometer is then used as a detector. Direct mass-spectrometric methods have to compete with separation techniques such as GC, LC and SFC that are more commonly used for quantitative analysis of polymer additives. The principal advantage of direct mass-spectrometric examination of compounded polymers (or their extracts) is speed of analysis. However, quite often more information can be 

The particle-beam, interface has been used for direct introduction of extracts into the mass spectrometer without chromatographic separation [55]. In fact, chromatographic separation is not always essential, especially if structural information is available about the analytes of interest. The main features of this particular approach are  

Direct mass analysis of additives in bulk polymers is in principle an attractive methodology, albeit with many restrictions (Table 6.38). Early MS work has focused on direct thermal desorption of additives from the bulk polymer, followed by EI-MS [22,240], CI-MS [22,63] and FI-MS [22]. However, these traditional approaches are limited to polymer additives that are both stable and volatile at the higher temperatures, 

---

Direct Mass-Spectrometric Polymer Compound Analysis... 

Nowadays, MS is often no longer the analytical bottleneck, but rather what precedes it (sample preparation) and follows it (data handling, searching). Direct mass-spectrometric methods have to compete with the separation techniques such as GC, HPLC and SFC that are commonly used for quantitative analysis of polymer additives. Extract analysis has the general advantage that higher-molecular-weight (less-volatile) additives can be detected more readily than by direct analysis of the polymer compound. 

---