A Pyrolysis-GC/MS Screening System for Analysis of Phthalate Esters and Brominated Flame Retardants

Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, short for directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, restricts the use of six hazardous substances commonly used in electronic and electrical equipment. Two of the substances are brominated flame retardants - polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), which are known to cause series of health concerns due to the high halogenated content. Furthermore, four types of phthalate esters are expected to be regulated in 2019 in Europe, which add phthalate esters to the list of substances restricted under RoHS. To quantitate these substance in polymer matrix, traditional method involves identifying matrix material using FTIR for solvent determination and extraction of PBBs, PBDEs and phthalate esters from sample matrix, followed by gas chromatography. This method is time consuming and also poses the risk to expose to multiple toxic solvents.To quantitate these substances in a polymer matrix, the traditional approach involves solvent extraction of PBBs, PBDEs and phthalate esters from the sample matrix, followed by detection and quantitation by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). This method is time consuming and poses the risk of exposure to multiple toxic solvents.Pyrolysis followed by GC/MS has been well established for detection of volatile and semi-volatile compounds in both natural and synthetic polymers. Using the pyrolysis technique described here, a temperature programed micro-furnace provides thermal desorption processes at two temperature ranges, releasing the PBBs, PBDEs and phthalate esters from the polymer matrix for subsequent analysis by GC/MS.In this poster, a PY-GC/MS method has been used to screen for seven phthalate esters and 11 brominated flame retardants. A commercially available method package was used, which includes phthalate ester and PBDE standards, pre-registered instrument methods with acquisition and data processing parameters, and calibration curves for semi-quantitative calculation of compound concentration. Quantitation results were generated with minimal sample preparation, requiring no organic solvents. A software program for efficient multi-analyte data confirmation and QAQC review is also discussed.