Polymers Mass Spectrometry
My research activities are focused on mass spectrometry of synthetic polymers. A first axis aims at developing methods for their structural characterization, solving issues related to their ionization (ESI, MALDI, DESI) and exploring their dissociation mechanisms for precise characterization of chain terminations by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). These achievements are applied to synthetic polymers as well as dendrimers. The concept underlying my second research axis relies is MS/MS-assisted design of the structure of digital polymers. These monodisperse macromolecules are composed of co-monomers defined as letters of an alphabet, placed in a defined sequence along the chain in order to write messages at the molecular level. For reliable reading of such information by MS/MS sequencing, the structure of digital polymers is optimized to favor most relevant dissociation pathways while avoiding undesired reactions. This concept is developed in collaboration with Dr Jean-François Lutz (Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires, Strasbourg) who develops digital polymers for massive information storage and anti-counterfeiting applications. These two main research axes increasingly involve coupling of mass spectrometry with ion mobility spectrometry.