Determining the Time Needed for the Vortex Method for Preparing Solvent-Free MALDI Samples of Low Molecular Mass Polymers

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry is an important technique to characterize many different materials, including synthetic polymers. MALDI mass spectral data is used to determine the polymer average molecular weights, repeat units, and end groups. The development of the vortex method of solvent-free sample preparation showed that remarkably short mixing times could prepare samples that yielded high quality MALDI mass spectra. In this paper, we use microscopy images and MALDI mass spectra to evaluate the mixing time required by the vortex method to produce mass spectra for low molecular mass polymer samples. Our results show that mixing times of as little as 10 s can generate homogeneous thin films that produce high quality mass spectra with S/N ∼ 100. In addition, ultrashort mixing times of only 2 s still produce samples with mostly smooth morphology and mass spectra with S/N ∼ 10. SEM image from a sample of PMMA 2k prepared with IAA as the matrix utilizing only 10 seconds of vortex mixing.