Characterization of low molecular weight alkoxylated polymers using long column SFC/MS and an image analysis based...

The utility of low viscosity mobile phases and long chromatographic columns for complex polymer analysis is demonstrated. We use long column supercritical fluid chromatography/mass spectrometry (SFC/MS) with electrospray ionization (ESI) to characterize a variety of complex, low molecular weight polymers. When quantitative analysis is desired, the resulting three-dimensional (time, intensity, and mass-to-charge ratio [m/z]) data are converted to images. Custom image analysis software is used to detect and integrate peaks in arbitrarily defined regions of the time-m/z map. These integrated peak volumes can be used to quantitate distinct component classes of the polymer mixtures.