USGS Home
Contact USGS
Search USGS

UMESC Publications

Direct chemical-analysis of UV laser-ablation products of organic polymers by using selective ion monitoring mode in gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry

Choi, Y., Lee, H. W., Fountain, S. T., and Lubman, D. M., 1994, Direct chemical-analysis of UV laser-ablation products of organic polymers by using selective ion monitoring mode in gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry: Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, v. 5, no. 2., p. 106-112.

Abstract

Trace quantities of laser ablated organic polymers were analyzed by using commercial capillary column gas chromatography/mass spectrometry; the instrument was modified so that the laser ablation products could be introduced into the capillary column directly and the constituents of each peak in the chromatogram were identified by using a mass spectrometer. The present study takes advantage of the selective ion monitoring mode for significantly improving the sensitivity of the mass spectrometer as a detector, which is critical in analyzing the trace quantities and confirming the presence or absence of the species of interest in laser ablated polymers. The initial composition of the laser ablated polymers was obtained by using an electron impact reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer and the possible structure of the fragments observed in the spectra was proposed based on the structure of the polymers.