Ion chromatographic determination of total bromine in electronic devices in conjunction with a catalytic reduction debromination pretreatment

Pei Dai; Dajiao Hou; Shun Guo; Lihua Zhu; Ming Lei; Heqing Tang

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2019.07.042

Ion chromatographic determination of total bromine in electronic devices in conjunction with a catalytic reduction debromination pretreatment

Anal Chim Acta. 2019 Nov 15:1082:49-55. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2019.07.042. Epub 2019 Jul 24.

Authors

Pei Dai¹, Dajiao Hou¹, Shun Guo¹, Lihua Zhu², Ming Lei³, Heqing Tang⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, PR China.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, PR China. Electronic address: lhzhu63@hust.edu.cn.
³ College of Resources and Environmental Science, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan, 430074, PR China.
⁴ College of Resources and Environmental Science, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan, 430074, PR China. Electronic address: tangheqing@mail.scuec.edu.cn.

PMID: 31472712
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2019.07.042

Abstract

A new determination method for total bromine in electronic devices was developed by using ultrasound assisted extraction, copper-catalyzed reductive debromination and ion chromatography (UAE-RD-IC). It was found that all the added brominated flame retardants (polybrominateddiphenyl ethers, polybrominated biphenyls, tetrabromobisphenol A, and hexabromocyclododecane) could be completely debrominated by using copper-based catalysts and reducing agent N₂H₄•H₂O. The complete debromination of brominated flame retardants released all of their bromine in the form of bromide ions, which could be determined by ion chromatography. After the extraction parameters were optimized by achieving the maximum IC signal in the certified reference material GBW(E) 082725, the UAE-RD-IC method was established for the determination of total bromine in solid samples. By analyzing the certified reference material, the Br content was obtained as 695.3 ± 16.0 mg kg^-1, being well consistent with its standard value (694.54 ± 30.63 mg kg^-1). The relative standard deviation (RSD) of five parallel determinations was 1.7%, indicating the good repeatability of the developed method. The proposed method was further applied to analyze the samples of cables and computer mouse shells. For all these practical samples, the Br contents obtained by the UAE-RD-IC method were in good agreement with that obtained by the standard oxygen bomb combustion-IC method. It was noted that the new method has a detection limit of Br of about 20 mg kg^-1, being much lower than that (75 mg kg^-1) of the traditional oxygen bomb combustion-IC method for total bromine detection. Therefore, the proposed method was qualified as a practical method to measure total bromine content in actual electronic devices with good analytical performances of accuracy, precision and sensitivity.

Keywords: Brominated flame retardants; Catalytic reduction debromination; Ion chromatography; Total bromine detection; Ultrasound assisted extraction.