A tandem mass spectrometry-based method to assess the architectural purity of synthetic polymers: a case of a cyclic polylactide obtained by click chemistry

A tandem mass spectrometry-based method is developed to determine the degree of purity achieved in the cyclization of a linear poly(L-lactide) prepared by copper-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition. When proton nuclear magnetic resonance, size-exclusion chromatography, and single-stage mass spectrometry are unable to demonstrate the presence of a residual linear polymer, the proposed ESI-tandem mass spectrometry methodology allows detection of starting material traces (<5%) based on radically different collision-induced dissociation (CID) behaviours. The technique is believed to be readily adaptable to numerous isomeric pairs of macromolecules presenting different CID characteristics.