A full evaporation headspace gas chromatographic method for determination of monomer conversion in cellulose graft poly-methyl methacrylate

This paper reports on a full evaporation headspace gas chromatographic method for rapid determination of monomeric methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the cellulose graft poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA) via an atom transfer radical polymerization process. The data show that a near-complete mass transfer of MMA from the very small liquid sample size (<30 mg) to the vapor phase (headspace) was achieved within 5 min at 105 °C. The present method has excellent precision (RSD < 0.3%) and accuracy (recovery = 97%) for the quantification of the residual MMA in cellulose graft PMMA liquid samples.