Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry of polymers

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry has been demonstrated to be a powerful analytical technique for the analysis of polymeric materials. The advantages of this technique for such analyses include low sample consumption, ease of sample preparation, short analysis times, and soft ionization which leads to negligible or no fragmentation of analytes. It provides absolute, fast and accurate molecular masses for polymers with narrow polydispersity as opposed to relative masses provided by other techniques. It provides masses for the entire polymer distribution instead of the average value, hence providing molecular mass information which can be used to obtain the mass of the end-groups, mass of the repeat unit (monomer), and chemical modifications on the polymer if oligomer resolution is attained. This review concentrates on the developments in methodology that have allowed for the increased use of this technique for polymer analysis.