Polyether polyol is the main raw material for polyurethane manufacture at present. Its composition and structure will affect the final performance of polyurethane products directly. In this article

we developed an Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray ionization-Quadrupole-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-Q-TOF MS) method to analyze complex polyether polyol. The polyol samples were first separated in two eluents by HPLC

then investigated by a study of multistage mass spectrometry. The sample 1 was identified to be polyoxypropylene ether initiated by sorbitol (n

PO

= 6〜15). The main components identified of sample 2 were polyoxypropylene ether initiated by glycol (n

PO

= 2〜6)

sorbitol (n

PO

= 7〜15) and sucrose (n

PO

= 10〜15)

the weight percentage of the three components is obtained to be 13. 4%

80. 3 and 6. 3% through the extracted ion chromatogram area integration method. The sample 3 was identified to be polyoxyethylene ether initiated by glycerol (nEO = 18〜39). The deduction for the structure of three complex polyether polyol is validated by the analysis of the MS/MS fragmentation. This article provides a simple

accurate and reliable analysis method for polyether polyol

which contains high resolution and sensitivity

and the qualitative and quantitative results can be obtained at the same time.