Determination of Polybrominated Diphenylether in Polystyrene Resin by Gas Chromatography/Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The analytical performance of gas chromatography/inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (GC/ICP-MS) was evaluated for the determination of polybrominated diphenylether (PBDE) including deca BDE (BDE-209). The detection limits ranged from 0.086 pg (BDE-85) to 19 pg (BDE-209), which were 1 or 2 orders of magnitude superior to those with GC/electron impact ionization-low resolution mass spectrometry and GC-ECD. The present method gave the same sensitivity for thermally stable PBDE isomers from tri- to hepta-BDE, and the same calibration graph could be used to quantify these isomers. On the contrary, a non-linear calibration graph, different sensitivity and worse detection limits were observed for thermally labile isomers from octa- to deca-BDE, but these problems originated not from ICP-MS but from GC; that is, the decomposition in the GC column and the injection port turned out to be an essential problem that must be resolved. PBDE, including BDE-209, in polystyrene resin was successfully determined by the present method using on-column injection. Since the spectral interface from co-existing materials was almost negligible, and therefore clean-up was unnecessary in the sample-preparation step, the present method was superior in robustness and rapidness to other conventional methods.