Quantitative Detection of Natural Rubber Content in Eucommia ulmoides by Portable Pyrolysis-Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Eucommia ulmoides gum (EUG) is a natural polymer predominantly consisting of trans-1,4-polyisoprene. Due to its excellent crystallization efficiency and rubber-plastic duality, EUG finds applications in various fields, including medical equipment, national defense, and civil industry. Here, we devised a portable pyrolysis-membrane inlet mass spectrometry (PY-MIMS) approach to rapidly, accurately, and quantitatively identify rubber content in Eucommia ulmoides (EU). EUG is first introduced into the pyrolyzer and pyrolyzed into tiny molecules, which are then dissolved and diffusively transported via the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane before entering the quadrupole mass spectrometer for quantitative analysis. The results indicate that the limit of detection (LOD) for EUG is 1.36 μg/mg, and the recovery rate ranges from 95.04% to 104.96%. Compared to the result of pyrolysis-gas chromatography (PY-GC), the average relative error is 1.153%, and the detection time was reduced to less than 5 min, demonstrating that the procedure was reliable, accurate, and efficient. The method has the potential to be employed to precisely identify the rubber content of natural rubber-producing plants such as Eucommia ulmoides, Taraxacum kok-saghyz (TKS), Guayule, and Thorn lettuce.

Rapid Determination of Taraxacum kok-saghyz Rubber Content Using a Pyrolyzer Hyphenated with a Miniaturized Mass Spectrometer

“…Compared with this method, there is no other detection method that can simultaneously achieve high-throughput, rapid, accurate, lower-cost, and miniaturized qualitative and quantitative analysis and detection of natural rubber. Additionally, this method is also applicable to the quantification of rubber content in other rubber-producing plants [19]. Although plants may contain other small amounts of iridoids, isoprene monomers can also be produced after pyrolysis, but the content of these substances is relatively low compared to rubber and can be ignored.…”

“…Analytical pyrolysis is a technique involving the rapid heating of a sample in a wellcontrolled environment, thus inducing the swift breakdown of the sample into volatile, small molecular fragments. In the field of rubber engineering, the application of analytical pyrolysis involves the comprehensive and systematic analysis of polymer materials through the combination of pre-treatment extraction methods and modern analytical techniques, such as gas chromatography and/or mass spectrometry (PY-GC/MS) [18,19]. Portable mass spectrometers with small sizes and easily selectable quadrupoles are increasingly employed for on-site rapid analysis, establishing them as one of the most competitive in-field sampling techniques.…”

Rapid Determination of Taraxacum kok-saghyz Rubber Content by Pyrolyzer Hyphenated with a Miniaturized Mass Spectrometer

“…Analytical pyrolysis is a technique involving the rapid heating of a sample in a well-controlled environment, inducing the swift breakdown of the sample into volatile small molecular fragments. In the field of rubber engineering, the application of analytical pyrolysis involves the comprehensive and systematic analysis of polymer materials through the combination of pre-treatment extraction methods and modern analytical techniques such as gas chromatography and/or mass spectrometry (PY-GC/MS) [19,20]. Portable mass spectrometers with small sizes and easily selectable quadrupoles are increasingly employed for on-site rapid analysis, establishing themselves as one of the most competitive in-field sampling techniques.…”

Comprehensive genomic characterisation of the NAC transcription factor family and its response to drought stress in Eucommia ulmoides

“…Therefore, E. ulmoides is considered an ideal alternative or complementary tree species to H . brasiliensis ( Guo et al, 2023 ; Wuyun et al, 2018 ). During the growth of E. ulmoides , some environmental factors, such as drought and low-temperature stress, can prevent its full genetic potential, resulting in reduced yield and even plant death ( Zuo et al, 2022 ).…”