Chemometric analysis of ethoxylated polymer products using extracted MALDI-TOF-MS peak distribution features.

MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry) of ethoxylate products produces spectra with distributions of regularly spaced peaks resulting from the addition of monomer units of ethylene oxide to the oligomer. We show that overlapping peak distributions...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Elizabeth Dickinson, Richard N Cawthorne, Peter Dodds, Graham M Atkinson, Pablo F García Thomas, Lucy Jones, Molly Crosbie, Janet Cook, Julie Wilson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0328462
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849429533242949632
author Elizabeth Dickinson
Richard N Cawthorne
Peter Dodds
Graham M Atkinson
Pablo F García Thomas
Lucy Jones
Molly Crosbie
Janet Cook
Julie Wilson
author_facet Elizabeth Dickinson
Richard N Cawthorne
Peter Dodds
Graham M Atkinson
Pablo F García Thomas
Lucy Jones
Molly Crosbie
Janet Cook
Julie Wilson
author_sort Elizabeth Dickinson
collection DOAJ
description MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry) of ethoxylate products produces spectra with distributions of regularly spaced peaks resulting from the addition of monomer units of ethylene oxide to the oligomer. We show that overlapping peak distributions from the different ethoxylated constituents of natural raw materials can be resolved, so that features of the individual distributions (m/z at distribution maximum, intensity at the distribution maximum, width of the distribution at half height, and ratio of the distribution to the major peak distribution) can be extracted and used with statistical pattern recognition techniques to study ethoxylated products. Crucially, we weight the extracted features, so that features from a distribution with a high ratio to the main distribution are given more importance ('ratio-scaled'). We exemplify the method by characterizing the structural variation between types of compositionally diverse Polysorbate 80, PEG castor oil and Oleth-20, and compare the chemometric analysis using our extracted features with analysis of the full spectra. We demonstrate that using ratio-scaled extracted features gives superior results to the full spectrum, both in terms of identifying subtle compositional differences that would otherwise be missed, and in interpretability. Importantly, the integrated auto-assignment of peak distributions to possible compounds allows the results to be reported in terms of the most abundant oligomers of the raw material constituents. This simplification facilitates interpretation of the results and allows the comparison of closely related products.
format Article
id doaj-art-2f53c08ec57e4fe686e910f1c81e7673
institution Kabale University
issn 1932-6203
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj-art-2f53c08ec57e4fe686e910f1c81e76732025-08-20T03:28:19ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01207e032846210.1371/journal.pone.0328462Chemometric analysis of ethoxylated polymer products using extracted MALDI-TOF-MS peak distribution features.Elizabeth DickinsonRichard N CawthornePeter DoddsGraham M AtkinsonPablo F García ThomasLucy JonesMolly CrosbieJanet CookJulie WilsonMALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry) of ethoxylate products produces spectra with distributions of regularly spaced peaks resulting from the addition of monomer units of ethylene oxide to the oligomer. We show that overlapping peak distributions from the different ethoxylated constituents of natural raw materials can be resolved, so that features of the individual distributions (m/z at distribution maximum, intensity at the distribution maximum, width of the distribution at half height, and ratio of the distribution to the major peak distribution) can be extracted and used with statistical pattern recognition techniques to study ethoxylated products. Crucially, we weight the extracted features, so that features from a distribution with a high ratio to the main distribution are given more importance ('ratio-scaled'). We exemplify the method by characterizing the structural variation between types of compositionally diverse Polysorbate 80, PEG castor oil and Oleth-20, and compare the chemometric analysis using our extracted features with analysis of the full spectra. We demonstrate that using ratio-scaled extracted features gives superior results to the full spectrum, both in terms of identifying subtle compositional differences that would otherwise be missed, and in interpretability. Importantly, the integrated auto-assignment of peak distributions to possible compounds allows the results to be reported in terms of the most abundant oligomers of the raw material constituents. This simplification facilitates interpretation of the results and allows the comparison of closely related products.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0328462
spellingShingle Elizabeth Dickinson
Richard N Cawthorne
Peter Dodds
Graham M Atkinson
Pablo F García Thomas
Lucy Jones
Molly Crosbie
Janet Cook
Julie Wilson
Chemometric analysis of ethoxylated polymer products using extracted MALDI-TOF-MS peak distribution features.
PLoS ONE
title Chemometric analysis of ethoxylated polymer products using extracted MALDI-TOF-MS peak distribution features.
title_full Chemometric analysis of ethoxylated polymer products using extracted MALDI-TOF-MS peak distribution features.
title_fullStr Chemometric analysis of ethoxylated polymer products using extracted MALDI-TOF-MS peak distribution features.
title_full_unstemmed Chemometric analysis of ethoxylated polymer products using extracted MALDI-TOF-MS peak distribution features.
title_short Chemometric analysis of ethoxylated polymer products using extracted MALDI-TOF-MS peak distribution features.
title_sort chemometric analysis of ethoxylated polymer products using extracted maldi tof ms peak distribution features
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0328462
work_keys_str_mv AT elizabethdickinson chemometricanalysisofethoxylatedpolymerproductsusingextractedmalditofmspeakdistributionfeatures
AT richardncawthorne chemometricanalysisofethoxylatedpolymerproductsusingextractedmalditofmspeakdistributionfeatures
AT peterdodds chemometricanalysisofethoxylatedpolymerproductsusingextractedmalditofmspeakdistributionfeatures
AT grahammatkinson chemometricanalysisofethoxylatedpolymerproductsusingextractedmalditofmspeakdistributionfeatures
AT pablofgarciathomas chemometricanalysisofethoxylatedpolymerproductsusingextractedmalditofmspeakdistributionfeatures
AT lucyjones chemometricanalysisofethoxylatedpolymerproductsusingextractedmalditofmspeakdistributionfeatures
AT mollycrosbie chemometricanalysisofethoxylatedpolymerproductsusingextractedmalditofmspeakdistributionfeatures
AT janetcook chemometricanalysisofethoxylatedpolymerproductsusingextractedmalditofmspeakdistributionfeatures
AT juliewilson chemometricanalysisofethoxylatedpolymerproductsusingextractedmalditofmspeakdistributionfeatures