Assessment of a new method for the analysis of decomposition gases of polymers by a combining thermogravimetric solid-phase extraction and thermal desorption gas chromatography mass spectrometry

Analysis of polyethylene microplastics in environmental samples, using a thermal decomposition method

“…This is not surprising because the calibration curves for PE in soil achieved an R 2 factor of around 0.99 (Fig. 4) and the relative error of the method is known from former investigations to be~10% (Duemichen et al, 2014).…”

“…Most of our work has focused on the material characterization and the material stabilization at high temperature or in oxidizing atmosphere. Recently we introduced a new, advantageous combination of techniques, which was developed for the semi-quantitative analysis of polymer decomposition (Duemichen et al, 2014(Duemichen et al, , 2015. In this method, the advantages of TGA were combined with the advantages of GCeMS, coupled by a solid-phase extraction process.…”

“…Identifications were carried out by scanning the NIST 11 and Wiley 9th spectral databases. More detailed information about this method can be taken from the literature (Duemichen et al, 2014).…”

“…This article will present a new method (Duemichen et al, 2014) that allows the identification and even the quantification of polymers in different, solid environmental samples. In the method used, thermoextraction and desorption coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (TED-GC-MS), environmental samples are pyrolysed and the decomposition gases are analysed.…”

Mikroplastik in Binnengewässern

“…Auf das zusätzliche Potenzial, die Anforderungen und die Vorteile einer Kopplung von TG mit einer Thermosorption/-desorptions-GC-MS gegenüber der TG-MS bzw. TG-FTIR-MS bei der Untersuchung des thermischen Abbaus von Polymeren wird ausführ-lich und vergleichend in neuen Studien eingegangen (Dümichen et al 2014(Dümichen et al , 2015b. In diesen Untersuchungen wurden die Verbrennungsgase auf kommerziell erhältlichen, üblicherweise zur Headspaceanalyse verwendeten Polydimethylsiloxan-be schichteten Magnetrührstäben (Twister ® ) sorbiert und in einem anschließenden Schritt mit der zugehörigen Thermodesorptionseinheit durch GC-MS analysiert.…”