LASER DESORPTION IONIZATION FOURIER-TRANSFORM MASS-SPECTROMETRY AND FAST ATOM BOMBARDMENT SPECTRA OF NONVOLATILE POLYMER ADDITIVES

Laser desorption Fourier transform mass spectra (LD-FTMS) of a variety of nonvolatile polymer additives are compared with fast atom bombardment spectra (FAB) of the same materials. Both a pulsed carbon dioxide laser and a neodymium-YAG laser with outputs of 10.6 and 1.064 μm, respectively, were used to obtain LD-FTMS spectra of all samples. Three sterically hindered phenols and other additives containing a variety of functionallties including thioester phosphite, phosphonite, and hindered amine groups were examined. In general, FAB spectra show undesirably large amounts of fragmentation, while molecular ion species dominate LD-FTMS spectra. It is concluded that LD-FTMS spectra are superior to FAB spectra for analysis of these common polymer additives. © 1990, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.