Mass Spectrometry

Mass Spectrometry of Polymers

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Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is a powerful tool for the end-group analysis of synthetic polymers. The ESI process is particularly soft, by which macromolecules can be subjected to mass spectrometric analysis without fragmentation and even loosely bound end-group functionalities may fully be retained in the ionized molecule. This favorable feature is exploited for the detailed study of the initiation process in radical polymerization, where the spectrum of radicals that add to monomer remains as an imprint in the final polymeric material.