Development of a screening method for phthalate esters in polymers using a quantitative database in combination with pyrolyzer/thermal desorption gas chromatography mass spectrometry

Identification and quantification of plastic additives using pyrolysis-GC/MS: A review

“…In comparison, Py-GC/MS studies showed similar values with recovery rates of over 98% (La Nasa et al, 2021) and between 78 and 117% (J.W. Kim et al, 2016;Yanagisawa et al, 2019;Kudo et al, 2019) and high repeatabilities of 5% and 10% (Yanagisawa et al, 2018 and2019 respectively) and between 7.7 to 20% (J.W. Kim et al, 2016).…”

“…To date, many conventional methods for OPA analysis in polymer materials have been published. The majority of them use SE, such as Soxhlet extraction, coupled with GC/MS analysis (Kim et al, 2016;Kudo et al, 2019;Trimpin et al, 2009). SE allows for accurate qualitative and quantitative analysis, but requires complicated, costly, and time-consuming steps as well as large quantities of solvents.…”

“…It provides a well-known advantage: it does not require sample pretreatment, such as SE (Llana-Ruiz-Cabello et al, 2017). Analysis can be carried out by simply placing a suitable amount of weighed out sample directly in a pyrolysis sample cup, thereby limiting background contamination (Dekiff et al, 2014;Fries et al, 2013;Kudo et al, 2019;Terán et al, 2009). Although cross-contamination coming from the sample preparation steps can be avoided, particular attention must be paid to the plastic additives already present in laboratory reagents and materials.…”

“…More and more studies are showing interest for this application (Net et al, 2015). However, relatively few studies have managed to attain suitable quantification or semiquantification of additives in polymers, with lacking information on the limits of detection or accuracy of the method for some studies (Table 2) and only on specific families of additives, mostly involving plasticizers especially phthalates (Fries et al, 2013;Kim et al, 2016;Kudo et al, 2019;La Nasa et al, 2021;Maruyama et al, 2015;Net et al, 2015;Yanagisawa et al, 2019) and BFRs (Rial-Otero et al, 2009;Yanagisawa et al, 2018).…”

“…First, contrary to the more "traditional" wet-chemistry techniques, Py-GC/MS does not require pretreatment of the sample and extraction steps, limiting background contamination (Dekiff et al, 2014;Fries et al, 2013;Kudo et al, 2019;Terán et al, 2009). The possibility of conducting a multi-shot analysis is clearly the major advantage of Py-GC/MS, allowing the co-identification of OPAs and plastic polymeric matrices (Derenne and Quénéa, 2015;Fries et al, 2013;Okoffo et al, 2020;Wang, 2000b).…”