Identification of Impurities in Dimethyl Carbonate by GC-HRTOFMS

Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) has been touted as an environmentally friendly solvent for use in production of plastics like polycarbonate and polyurethane, as EPA-approved VOC-exempt solvent for coatings and paints, as an oxygenate additive for diesel, and as co-solvent for lithium-ion batteries. Determination of impurities in DMC is crucial to prove suitability for use and prevent side-reactions in high-performance material production. In this poster, targeted and nontargeted byproducts formed during the DMC manufacturing process are characterized using a variety of gas chromatography coupled time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOFMS) techniques.