MALDI analysis of estane degradation

SEUMALDI has been successfully used to accurately measure the MW of hydrolysis degradation products from Estane 5703. Reasonable structure assignments have been made to the degradation products and several observations reported. Most of the low MW degradation peaks have been identified as ester hydrolysis fragments. The data suggest that the polyester macrodiol may be shorter than the {approximately}2000 amu reported by the manufacturer. Experiments are ongoing to determine if hydrolysis occurs within the material's applied environment.