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Knol WC, de Vries QL, Brooijmans T, Gruendling T, Pirok BWJ, Peters RAH. Hyphenation of liquid chromatography and pyrolysis-flame ionization detection/mass spectrometry for polymer quantification and characterization. Anal Chim Acta 2023; 1257:341157. [PMID: 37062568 DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2023.341157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2023] [Revised: 03/23/2023] [Accepted: 03/28/2023] [Indexed: 04/03/2023]
Abstract
Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) hyphenated to pyrolysis-gas chromatography (Py-GC) has been demonstrated as a powerful tool in polymer analysis. A main limitation to the wider application of the method are the long second-dimension Py-GC analysis times, resulting in limited first-dimension sampling and/or long overall run times. Therefore, we set out to develop an online hyphenated SEC×Py-MS/FID method, removing the GC separation and allowing for a drastically reduced second-dimension analysis time compared to SEC-Py-GC. The pyrolysis method had a cycle time of 1.31 min, which was facilitated by liquid nitrogen cooling of the programmable temperature vaporizer (PTV) used for pyrolysis. The developed method featured no molar mass discrimination for masses above ±1.3 kDa, rendering it applicable to most commercial polymer systems. The method was demonstrated on multiple samples, including a complex industrial sample, yielding chemical composition heterogeneity and in some cases sequence heterogeneity information over the molar mass distribution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wouter C Knol
- Analytical Chemistry Group, van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS), Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Centre for Analytical Sciences Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Quincy L de Vries
- Analytical Chemistry Group, van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS), Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Centre for Analytical Sciences Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Ton Brooijmans
- Analytical Chemistry Group, van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS), Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Centre for Analytical Sciences Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Covestro, Group Innovation, Sluisweg 12, Waalwijk, the Netherlands
| | - Till Gruendling
- BASF SE, Carl-Bosch-Strasse 38, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany
| | - Bob W J Pirok
- Analytical Chemistry Group, van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS), Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Centre for Analytical Sciences Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Ron A H Peters
- Analytical Chemistry Group, van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS), Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Centre for Analytical Sciences Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Covestro, Group Innovation, Sluisweg 12, Waalwijk, the Netherlands
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Knol WC, Smeets JPH, Gruendling T, Pirok BWJ, Peters RAH. Online hyphenation of size-exclusion chromatography and pyrolysis-gas chromatography for polymer characterization. J Chromatogr A 2023; 1690:463800. [PMID: 36681003 DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2023.463800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2022] [Revised: 01/11/2023] [Accepted: 01/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
An understanding of the composition and molecular heterogeneities of complex industrial polymers forms the basis of gaining control of the physical properties of materials. In the current work we report on the development of an online method to hyphenate liquid polymer chromatography with pyrolysis-GC (Py-GC). The designed workflow included a 10-port valve for fractionation of the first-dimension effluent. Collected fractions were transferred to the Py-GC by means of a second LC pump, a 6-port valve was used to control injection in the Py-GC, allowing the second pump to operate continuously. The optimized large volume injection (LVI) method was capable of analyzing 117 µL of the LC effluent in a 6 min GC separation with a total cycle time of 8.45 min. This resulted in a total run time of 2.1 h while obtaining 15 Py-GC runs over the molar mass separation. The method was demonstrated on various real-life samples including a complex industrial copolymer with a bimodal molar mass distribution. The developed method was used to monitor the relative concentration of 5 different monomers over the molar mass distribution. Furthermore, the molar mass-dependent distribution of a low abundant comonomer (styrene, <1% of total composition) was demonstrated, highlighting the low detection limits and increased resolving power of this approach over e.g. online NMR or IR spectroscopy. The developed method provides a flexible and widely applicable approach to LC-Py-GC hyphenation without having to resort to costly and specialized instrumentation.
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Peters R, Pirok B, Mengerink Y. Molecular Correlative Material Characterization: Advantages for Polymer Analysis Using Liquid Chromatography. LCGC Eur 2021. [DOI: 10.56530/lcgc.eu.ez6278j8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
This article discusses innovation around the molecular structure of polymeric materials—an indispensable part of modern society—with a specific focus on sustainability. This field of research, so-called molecular correlative material characterization (MCMC), will enhance the transition into new sustainable functional copolymers.
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Brooijmans T, Okhuijsen RA, Oerlemans GMM, Pirok BWJ, Schoenmakers PJ, Peters RAH. Heterogeneity analysis of polymeric carboxylic acid functionality by selective derivatization followed by size exclusion chromatography. Anal Chim Acta 2019; 1072:87-94. [PMID: 31146869 DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2019.04.051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2019] [Revised: 04/15/2019] [Accepted: 04/22/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Waterborne polymers are increasingly applied in our society, replacing traditional solvent-borne coatings and thus reducing environmental impact of coatings. The majority of waterborne dispersions are stabilized by the incorporation of neutralizable carboxylic acid functionality. The characterization of synthetic waterborne polymer systems can be performed by a wide variety of chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques. However, none of these approaches is able to determine the acid functionality distribution over the molecular-weight distribution directly. In this research, an innovative approach is developed which enables this analysis. The approach is based on the specific and complete derivatization of carboxylic acid functionality with phenacylbromide. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) analysis of the derivatized polymers is performed followed by ultraviolet- (UV) and refractive index (RI) detection, enabling the quantitative determination of the acid content per molecular weight fraction. The applicability of the developed protocol is shown for various polymer systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- T Brooijmans
- DSM Coating Resins, Analytical Technology Centre, Waalwijk, the Netherlands.
| | - R A Okhuijsen
- DSM Coating Resins, Analytical Technology Centre, Waalwijk, the Netherlands
| | - G M M Oerlemans
- DSM Coating Resins, Analytical Technology Centre, Waalwijk, the Netherlands
| | - B W J Pirok
- University of Amsterdam, van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Science (HIMS), Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - P J Schoenmakers
- University of Amsterdam, van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Science (HIMS), Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - R A H Peters
- DSM Coating Resins, Analytical Technology Centre, Waalwijk, the Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Science (HIMS), Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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