Solid‐phase microextraction (SPME) in polymer characterization—Long‐term properties and quality control of polymeric materials

Solid‐phase microextraction (SPME) in combination with GG‐MS was applied to quality control polyamide 6.6 collected for recycling and to study the long‐term properties and degradation of nitrile rubber, polyethylene, and polyamide 6.6. The migration of plasticizer and other additives reduces the service‐life and changes the properties of the material. It is also a possible health hazard, for example, legislation against the use of brominated flame retardants in plastic materials, is under discussion, and fast and reliable methods are required to detect such compounds in plastic materials collected for recycling. SPME rapidly and effectively extracted several brominated compounds from in‐plant collected polyamide 6.6. Migration of tris(2‐butoxyethyl)phosphate plasticizer and its degradation products from nitrile rubber during long‐term thermal ageing at 60 and 80°C was shown by SPME‐GC‐MS, while the plasticizer was not volatile enough to be detected by traditional HS‐GC‐MS. In accordance the number of degradation products extracted from thermo‐oxidized PE by HS‐SPME was three times larger than the number detected after HS‐GC‐MS analysis. SPME‐GC‐MS could also detect early signs of degradation in thermo‐oxidized virgin and in‐plant recycled polyamide 6.6 before any signs of degradation were observed by, for example, tensile testing or FTIR. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 867–873, 2003