Tandem Mass Spectrometry (MS/MS) for Determination of Architecture of Synthetic Polymers

Tandem Mass Spectrometry (MS/MS) was used to determine the architecture of synthetic polymers and they are difluorene-N3, 3-difluorene-N3 and VPOSS-3-difluorene. VPOSS materials usually exhibit electrochemical properties and the research was performed to determine their accurate structure and to provide evidence of their proper synthesis. The compounds were mixed with a matrix solution, DCTB, and a silver salt to enable proper protonation. The solvent mixture was on a MALDI plate and then put into the mass spectrometer. The mass spectrum generated was analyzed and each fragment was identified to structures with the synthetic polymers via ChemDraw. Thus, trial and error method was used in identifying each fragment peak in the mass spectrum and the final structure of the polymers was verified