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

Abstract

Analysis of organic plastic additives (OPAs) associated to plastic polymers is growing. The current review outlines the characteristics and the development of (multi-step) pyrolysis coupled with a gas chromatography mass spectrometer (Py-GC/MS) for the identification and semi-quantification of OPAs. Compared to traditional methods, Py-GC/MS offers advantages like suppressing extensive steps of preparation, limiting contamination due to solvents and the possibility to analyse minute particles. Its key advantage is the successive analysis of OPAs and the polymeric matrix of the same sample. Based on the studied articles, numerous methods have been described allowing identification and, in some case, semi-quantification of OPAs. There is nevertheless no gold standard method, especially given the huge diversity of OPAs and the risks of interferences with polymers or other additives, but, among other parameters, a consensus temperature seems to arise from studies. More broadly, this review also explores many aspects on the sample preparation like weight and size of particles and calibration strategies. After studying the various works, some development prospects emerge and it appears that methodological developments should focus on better characterizing the limits of the methods in order to consider which OPAs can be quantified and in which polymers this is feasible.

Keywords: Multi-shot pyrolysis; Organic plastic additives (OPAs); Plastic polymers; Py-GC/MS.