Abstract
Chemical safety assessment is one necessary step to demonstrate that the polymer used is free from harmful chemicals. The assessment should start with adequate material characterization using state-of-the-art analytical methods, including various chromatography techniques most often hyphenated with mass-spectrometric detection. Since polymers are usually incompatible with direct analysis using chromatography-based techniques, an extraction step is required prior to analytical testing. This paper provides information for practitioners who need to understand how to develop science-based extraction conditions that enable the determination of the polymer composition with respect to volatile compounds. Analytical data sets for three types of polymers (polypropylene, polycarbonate, polybutylene terephthalate, and a rubber elastomer) are presented using three different solvents and three different extraction techniques. The extracts were collected at different times during extraction and analyzed by GC-MS. The differences observed between extraction techniques, conditions, and solvents are discussed to better understand the impact of these parameters in extractable studies.
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