Hydrolytic Degradation of Synthetic Polytrimethylene Terephthalate and Characterization by MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry

The structural analysis of polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) and characterization of the hydrolytic degradation products after acid hydrolysis were performed using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Mass spectra of the PTT samples were analyzed using a self-calibration method as well as an internal calibration method with standard materials of known masses. PTT structures constituting the samples were determined from the analyses of the spectra, and their relative compositions were estimated. The MALDI-TOF mass spectra of the acid-hydrolyzed PTT sample showed three main series of oligomer products with different end groups in accordance with the hydrolysis schemes. From the spectra of both $Na^+$ and $K^+$ adducts, it was concluded that the PTT samples have higher affinity for $Na^+$ compared with $K^+$ and therefore show higher ionization efficiency with sodium ions when dithranol is used as a matrix. Two different wavelength laser beams ($\lambda$ = 337 nm and 355 nm) were tested and it was observed that the 355 nm beam was more efficient in obtaining the MALDI spectra of PTT using dithranol as a matrix under our experimental conditions.