In Situ Mass Spectrometric Screening and Studying of the Fleeting Chain Propagation of Aniline

Anal Chem. 2018 Jun 19;90(12):7154-7157. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b02498. Epub 2018 Jun 7.

Abstract

A simple and effective approach to studying the mechanism of electrooxidation of aniline (ANI) is reported in this paper. It was accomplished by an innovative electrochemistry (EC)-mass spectrometry (MS) coupling, which can sample directly from a droplet-scale reacting electrolyte for mass spectrometric analysis. With this setup, the polymer chain growth of ANI could be monitored in situ and in real-time. The short-lived radical cations (ANI•+, m/ z 93.06) as well as the soluble dimer ( m/ z 183.09) and oligomers ( m/ z 274.13, 365.18, ...) were successfully captured. Using the EC-MS and tandem mass spectrometry, the dimers produced by head-to-tail (4-aminodiphenylamine), head-to-head (hydrazobenzene), and tail-to-tail (benzidine) coupling of radical cations were found in the same polymerization process. Moreover, the EC-MS method was also applicable for determining the propagation speed of ANI when applying different electrolyte salts and oxidizing potentials.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.