title: Development of a combined standard additions/internal standards method to quantify residual PEG in ethoxylated surfactants by MALDI TOFMS.
abstract: Measuring the residual polyethylene glycol (PEG) in polyethylene oxide (PEO)-based surfactants is important to fully understanding the performance of these materials. Traditional methods of quantitating PEG in PEO-based surfactants can be time-consuming and struggle with low amounts or overlapping molecular mass distributions. This paper describes a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry method developed to quantitate residual PEG in a series of ethoxylated surfactants. The technique addresses the difficulties faced in doing quantitative MALDI experiments by utilizing both internal standard and standard additions protocols. The method produces excellent straight line standard addition plots, and the quantitative results are verified using both a constructed standard and an independent traditional chromatographic separation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Szyszka
authors.forename: Scott D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Hanton
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Henning
authors.forename: Kevin G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Owens