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Easy Access to the Characteristic Ratio of Polymers Using Ion‐Mobility Mass Spectrometry
Author(s) -
Kokubo Shinsuke,
Vana Philipp
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201600373
Subject(s) - polypropylene glycol , ion mobility spectrometry , polymer , polyethylene glycol , peg ratio , mass spectrometry , monomer , polypropylene , chemistry , ion , chain (unit) , polymer chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemical engineering , chromatography , organic chemistry , physics , finance , astronomy , engineering , economics
Ion‐mobility mass spectrometry is used for measuring single‐charged sodium cation (Na + ) adducted polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polypropylene glycol (PPG). The collision cross sections of PEG and PPG are measured in dependence of the number of monomer units per chain, which can directly be related to the value of chain stiffness, i.e., the characteristic ratio ( C n ). The evaluation of the data according to the globule model, which assumes that the chain in the gas phase exhibits spherical dimensions, yields very good agreement with the literature‐known reference values and C n of 3.96 and 5.76 for PEG and PPG, respectively, is obtained. The presented method, for which practical guidelines are also presented, is extremely quick and easy to perform and provides stunningly rapid access to the conformation data of synthetic polymers.