LARGE MOLECULES IN THE ENVIRONMENT DETECTED BY MALDI-MS AND SIZE EXCLUSION CHROMATOGRAPHY

Author:A.A. Herod

Co-authors: T.J. Morgan, F. Karaca1, M. Millan, R. Kandiyoti

Abstract/Description:
Large molecules in environmental samples have been detected initially by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and their presence subsequently confirmed by MALDI-MS. Although SEC does not measure molecular mass, it can be used to estimate molecular mass ranges of polydisperse samples and fractions. The two requirements of SEC are 1) a solvent that minimises interaction between solute molecules and column packing and 2) a solvent able to completely dissolve the sample. We have shown that SEC using 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP) as eluent and calibrated using polystyrene standards provides an estimate of molecular mass for coal tar pitch fractions, in good agreement with the peak masses measured for the same fractions by MALDI-MS and LD-MS up to m/z 3,000.

Poster presented at:
3rd National Meeting on Environmental Mass Spectrometry - 2006