The Application of Matrix‐assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Combined with Collision‐induced Dissociation to the Analysis of Synthetic Polymers

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization combined with collision-induced dissociation (CID) has been applied to the structural determination of synthetic polymers. Post-source decay/CID experiments on a time-of-flight (TOF) instrument have been compared with CID data from a hybrid sector-TOF mass spectrometer. Fragment-ation spectra of polymers, with molecular weights of up to 4500 Da, have been shown to aid structural and end-group determination. The polymers studied were poly(methyl methacrylate), poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(ethylene terephthalate).