MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry is one of the latest and most fascinating new developments in the analysis of organic compounds. Originally developed for the analysis of biomolecules, it has developed into one of the most powerful techniques for the characterization of synthetic polymers. This book describes the fundamentals of the MALDI process and the technical features of MALDI-TOF instrumentation. It reviews the application of MALDI-TOF for identification, chemical and molar mass analysis of synthetic polymers. With many examples, this monograph examines in detail experimental protocols for the determination of endgroups, the analysis of copolymers and additives, and the coupling of liquid chromatography and MALDI-TOF.

For the first time, a comprehensive presentation of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry as a powerful analytical technique for synthetic polymers is presented in a book format Summarizes the fundamentals and technical aspects of the method and describes experimental procedures in detail Will enable the reader to plan and execute own experiments and includes applications that have not been published before

Autorentext

Guilaume Greyling is a Postdoc Fellow at University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Previously he worked as Research Scientist for iThemba LABS and holds a PhD in Chemistry and Polymer Science from University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Harald Pasch holds the SASOL Chair of Analytical Polymer Science at the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He has great experience in analytical polymer science and polymer separation and fractionation techniques. His research is focused on the development of multidimensional analytical techniques for complex polymers, in particular efficient multi-dimensional coupling of separation methods and hyphenation of separation methods through complementary analytical methodology. Harald Pasch is one of the series editors of the series Springer Laboratory: Manuals in Polymer Science

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- 2 Mass Spectrometric Instrumentation.- 3 Fundamentals of MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry.- 4 Identification of Polmers.- 5 Molar Mass Determination.- 6 Analysis of Complex Polymers.- 7 COUPLING OF LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY AND MALDI-TOF Mass Spectromety.- 8 Recent Developments and Outlook.- 9 Subject Index.