Determination of PBDE and PBB compounds by GC-IDMS in plastics

PBDEs and PBB are organic compounds which are added to polymers and other materials, containing bromine to improve their fire-resistant properties in diverse applications, such as textiles and building materials. The major marketed brominated flame retardants are pentabromodiphenylether (pentaBDE), octabromodiphenylether (octaBDE), decabromodiphenylether (decaBDE) and decabromobiphenyl (decaBB). Since they have been as an additive in materials, they can be released easily to the environment. They bioaccumulate in food, biological media and environmental area such as soil, surface water and air and they effect the endocrine and nervous system of human and animals. Therefore, European Union made a decision about limited usage of octaBDE and pentaBDE compounds in electric and electronic devices. According to this, limit value has set as 1 g kg-1 (0.1 %) for the sum of PBBs and PBDEs in plastic parts of electric and electronic devices. This regulation also is implemented in our country. In this study, a validated analytical method was developed for the determination of 2,2′,4,4′-tetra-bromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47), 2,2′,3,4,4′,5′,6-hepta-bromodiphenyl ether (BDE-183), 2,2′,3,3′,4,4′,5,5′,6-nona-bromodiphenyl ether (BDE-206), deca-bromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) and deca-bromobiphenyl (BB-209) compounds in polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polymeric matrixes by using pressurized solvent extraction (PSE) technique and gas chromatography coupled tandem mass spectrometer (GC-MS/MS). The quantification of the target analytes were performed by isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS). The method was applied on the selected electrical and electronic consumer products. The recovery and relative uncertainty values of developed analytical method were obtained between 79.6-93.9 % and 6.5-13 %, respectively. The mass fraction of target analytes in real samples were obtained under 1000 mg/kg limit value which has set by directives.