A new approach of characterizing the hydrolytic degradation of poly(ethylene terephthalate) by MALDI-MS
✍ Scribed by S. Weidner; G. Kuehn; B. Werthmann; H. Schroeder; U. Just; R. Borowski; R. Decker; B. Schwarz; I. Schmuecking; I. Seifert
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 244 KB
- Volume
- 35
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0887-624X
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✦ Synopsis
The hydrolytic degradation of technical poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was investigated by means of different methods such as size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), viscometry, light-scattering, thin-layer chromatography, end-group titration, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). The long-term degradation was simulated by exposing PET filament yarns to aqueous neutral conditions at 90ЊC for up to 18 weeks. By means of MALDI-MS and thin-layer chromatography, the formation of different oligomers was obtained during polymer degradation. As expected, an ester scission process was found generating acid terminated oligomers (H-[GT] m -OH) and T-[GT] m -OH and ethylene glycol terminated oligomers (H-[GT] m -G), where G is an ethylene glycol unit and T is a terephthalic acid unit. Additionally, the scission of the ester bonds during the chemical treatment led to a strong decrease in the number of cyclic oligomers ([GT] m ). The occurrence of di-acid terminated species demonstrated a high degree of degradation.