A micro sample pretreatment technique combined with ion chromatography and its application in the determination of polyvinyl chloride

Abstract

A method for the determination of polyvinyl chloride was developed by the use of a micro sample pretreatment technique combined with ion chromatography. Polyvinyl chloride sample was placed in a sealed glass capillary containing 10 μL deionized water. As a micro pyrolysis reactor, the sealed glass capillary was maintained at 300 °C for 2 min in an oven. Under the above temperature, polyvinyl chloride was pyrolyzed rapidly and released hydrogen chloride, which was easily absorbed by deionized water. Subsequently, the absorption liquid was transferred to a volumetric flask and diluted to 10 mL. Ion chromatography was utilized to detect the content of chloride ion in the diluted absorption liquid for the quantification of polyvinyl chloride in samples. Good linear correlation coefficient (r = 0.9999) was obtained over a range of 0.02–2.00 mg polyvinyl chloride. Appropriate precision with the relative standard deviation below 16.4% and good recoveries between 86.0 and 119.4% were achieved in this work. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.004 mg and 0.012 mg for polyvinyl chloride respectively. The contents of polyvinyl chloride in real samples determined by the micro sample pretreatment technique were consistent with the results obtained by the referenced oxygen flask combustion method. It proved that the proposed method is simple, rapid and accurate for the determination of polyvinyl chloride in real samples.