Determination of Residual Ammonia in a Polymer Matrix by Headspace GC with a Hall Detector

Abstract

The determination of ammonia in a polymer matrix by headspace gas chromatography with a Hall electrolytic conductivity detector is described. Selectivity for ammonia was obtained by eliminating the reduction step of the Hall detector, so that only residual ammonia from the polymer processing was measured. The technique was routinely applied to polymer samples containing 20 to 6 ppm ammonia. Precision was 4.6% RSD (relative standard deviation, n = 5), and average recovery of ammonia from spiked polymer samples was 104.6%.