| Abstract Title: | Characterization of complex polyether polyols using comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography hyphenated with high resolution mass spectrometry (LCxLC-HRMS) |
| Abstract Type: | Seminar |
| Session Choice: | Comprehensive Chromatography - The State of the Art |
| Presenter Name: | Gino Groeneveld |
| Co-authors: | Melissa Dunkle Marian Rinken Andrea Gargano Ayako de Niet Matthias Pursch Edwin Mes Peter Schoenmakers |
| Company/Organisation: | University of Amsterdam |
| Country: | Netherlands |
Abstract Information :
Polyether polyols are key components in the production of polyurethane products, such as coatings, adhesives, and sealants, as well as in many other applications. Polyols are formed by reacting the starter (e.g. monol, diol, triol, etc.) with organic oxides (e.g. ethylene oxide (EO) or propylene oxide (PO)) in the presence of a base catalyst. The resulting polyether polyols can have a high degree of complexity due to differences in the starter and the functionality type distribution (FTD: functional group present), the molar-mass distribution (MMD: the chain length) and the chemical composition distribution (CCD: the EO-PO content). The characterization of such chemical features is of great importance, as they define the properties of the polyurethane intermediates and, hence, the performance of final products.
Such full characterization can be a challenging task as it can be difficult to fully resolve all the present distributions with a single analysis technique. Thus far, LC-MS is often used for the characterization of polyether polyols. Although this technique is capable of resolving a great deal of the sample, a chromatographic system with more resolving power is required to address the sample dimensionality of the polyether polyols. Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LCxLC) has proven to be the method of choice for very complex samples.
In this presentation, LCxLC methods hyphenated with high resolution mass spectrometry (LCxLC-HRMS) are described to characterize a wide variety of industrial polyether polyols. Different orthogonal separation mechanisms were studied to allow characterization on the starting compounds, as well as the MMD as function of the type of polymer (homo- and co-polymers).
