MALDI-MS for polymer characterization - Recent developments and future prospects

The development of new polymerization methods and, consequently, the generation of new polymeric materials, is associated with the development of methods for testing the properties of these materials. The matrix assisted laser desorption and ionization - mass spectrometry method (MALDI-MS) is the technique used to study various polymers. The most important advantages of this method include the ability to determine the distribution of the molecular mass of polymers, identify the components of the polymer chain, and examine the surfaces of the polymers. The investigations using MALDI-MS are conducted on different types of samples, e. g. environmental samples, synthetic polymers, colony-cultured and blood-cultured samples. In this review the main recent developments of the MALDI-MS method for studies of polymers have been summarized. The future prospects in field of MALDI-MS and its application to different types of polymeric materials have been described. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.