Screening of phthalates in polymer materials by pyrolysis GC/MS.

A study on the rapid identification of phthalates in polymer materials has been conducted by employing gas chromatography-mass spectrometry coupled with a pyrolyzer (Py-GC/MS). Since Py-GC/MS does not require any complex solvent-extraction process, a rapid screening of phthalates should be possible. In this study, polymer samples were directly introduced into the pyrolyzer in order to thermally extract phthalates from the polymer under specific heating conditions. By optimizing the Py-GC/MS parameters, a sequential testing cycle of 35 min per sample was feasible without causing any major decomposition of the base materials. Thus, a rapid screening of over 20 samples per day was achieved without any time constraints by effectively utilizing specifically prepared reference polymer sheets for quality control. Py-GC/MS was found to be suitable and effective for identifying phthalates in polymer materials.