| Abstract: | Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI) Time of Flight (TOF) Mass Spectrometry (MS) was used to study the molecular weight distribution (MWD) and the number of α-methyl styrene (α-MeSty) repeat units in SRM 1487, a narrow MWD poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) standard reference material of about 6300 g/mol, which was initiated with α-MeSty. It was found that each PMMA polymer chain had from zero to seven α-MeStys per chain. The MWD of the polymer chains containing a fixed number of α-MeStys was obtained. The MWD, Mw, and the average number of α-MeSty at a given molecular weight from MALDI TOF MS compare well with those obtained from more traditional methods such as ultracentrifugation and Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC). The implications of the number of α-MeStys per chain is discussed in terms of the chemistry of anionic polymerization. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 35 : 2409–2419, 1997 |
