It is quite easy to overlook the substantial impact of polymers in our daily lives. Synthetic polymers, fabricated and enhanced through years of research and development, comprise most of the materials we use today. Different characterization techniques have been undertaken to identify the composition and properties of synthetic polymers. The most viable method so far is mass spectrometry. The development of different mass spectrometric techniques such as MALD-ToF paved the way to a more accurate identification of synthetic polymers. There are other mass spectrometric techniques that can be used for synthetic polymers analysis. However, little to no studies have been done with the linear ion trap (LIT) technique for synthetic polymer detection analysis. LIT mass analyzers are flexible enough to be coupled with other mass analyzers for MS/MS. Also its small size fits for the development of benchtop mass spectrometers. In this study, an extensive analysis into the the optimization of LIT in synthetic polymer ion analysis and detection was carried out. The findings reveal that the LIT can exceed its known limits by finding the optimal conditions for pressure, collision cooling, scanning methods, ejection methods etc. The information and data obtained through this study can contribute to the development of LIT instruments, especially in the detection and analysis of synthetic polymers.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO POLYMERS 1
1.2. ANALYSIS OF POLYMER IONS USING MALDI-TOF MS 2
1.3. QUADRUPOLE ION TRAP MASS SPECTROMETRY 5
1.3.1 Quadrupole Mass Filters 5
1.3.2 Quadrupole Ion Trap 6
1.4 TWO-DIMENSIONAL LINEAR ION TRAP 6
1.4.1 Theory of ion motion in 2D quadrupole fields 7
1.4.2 The pseudopotential well model for quadrupole 2D ion traps 15
1.4.3 Collision gas cooling 15
1.4.4 Ion Ejection Methods 18
1.4.4.1 Amplitude/Voltage scan with boundary ejection 19
1.4.4.2 Amplitude/Voltage scan with resonant excitation/ejection 19
1.4.4.3 RF frequency scan 20
1.4.4.4 RF frequency scan with AC frequency scan 21
1.4.5 Frequency-Dependent Stability Diagram 21
1.5. DETECTORS 23
1.5.1 Charge sensing particle detector 23
1.8. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY 26
CHAPTER 2 EXPERIMENTAL SECTION 27
2.1. INSTRUMENTATION 27
2.1.1 Electronics and circuitry 29
2.1.2 VACUUM SYSTEM 31
2.1.3. Charge detector 31
2.2. SAMPLE PREPARATIONS 31
2.2.1 Polystyrene 31
2.2.2 Matrix preparation 32
2.2.3 Doping salt preparation 32
2.2.4 Polystyrene- Matrix – Salt mixture 32
2.3. EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS 32
2.3.1 MALDI-ToF mass analysis 32
2.3.2 LIT mass analysis 33
2.3.2.1 Polystyrene 3700 34
2.3.2.1 Polystyrene 13,000 34
2.3.2.1 Polystyrene 50,000 35
2.3.2.1 Polystyrene 200,000 35
CHAPTER 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 37
3.1. MALDI- TOF ANALYSIS OF POLYSTYRENE 37
3.2. LIT ANALYSIS OF POLYSTYRENE SAMPLES 41
3.2.1. LIT MS scanning and ion ejection methods comparison of polystyrene 3,700 41
3.2.2. LIT Mass analysis of Polystyrene 13,000 and the effects of cooling time 46
3.2.3. LIT mass analysis of polystyrene 50, 000 and Collision cooling gas effects 49
3.2.4. Effects of changing trapping time and scanning time 53
3.2.5. Detection of polystyrene 50, 000’s multimer ions in LIT 55
3.2.6 Detection of polystyrene 200,000 ions in LIT 57
CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION 59
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