A mass spectrometry imaging method for visualizing synthetic polymers by using average molecular weight and dispersity as indices.

The visualization of Mn , Mw and Đ will help provide an overview of the spatial distribution of polymer series combined with ion intensity distribution made by conventional methods. It can be also applied to other mass spectrometric imaging methods such as desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) or time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS).