Characterization of poly(L-lactide)-block-poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(L-lactide) triblock copolymer by liquid chromatography at the critical condition and by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

Poly(L-lactide)-block-poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(L-lactide) triblock copolymers (PLLA-b-PEO-b-PLLA) were fractionated in terms of the number of LLA units by liquid chromatography at the critical condition (LCCC) of PEO block. The fractionated samples were identified using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, The dependence of the LCCC retention of the diblock and triblock copolymers on the degree of polymerization of PLLA block(s) follows Martin's rule very well. Unlike the case of PEO-b-PLLA diblock copolymer reported earlier (Lee, H.; et al, Macromolecules 1999, 32, 4143), however, a splitting of the elution peaks containing the same number of LLA units was found. The peak splitting was ascribed to the different length distributions of PLLA blocks at the two ends of the PEO block. From the relative intensities of the peaks, the split peaks were assigned to different isomeric structures of the PLLA blocks. From these results we conclude that the interaction of the triblock copolymers with the stationary phase is affected by the distribution of the interacting blocks at the two ends of the center PEO block, in addition to the total number of LLA units in the triblock copolymer.