Easy Access to the Characteristic Ratio of Polymers Using Ion‐Mobility Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

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. image